Orwell Prize 2024: Political Writing

In The Picnic, Matthew Longo investigates the political significance of borders by focusing on the people who live beside them and those tasked with enforcing them. Through vivid reportage and interviews, he reveals how borderlands are shaped by fear, surveillance, and complicated alliances. Longo resists simplistic narratives, instead showing how human relationships persist even amid militarised structures. His prose is clear and immersive, grounding political theory in everyday encounters. The book is both intimate and expansive, weaving personal stories with a broader critique of modern border regimes. It is a thought-provoking meditation on the politics of belonging and the cost of security.

Cat Bohannon’s Eve reframes human evolution by placing the female body at the centre of biological history. She dismantles long-held biases in scientific research, revealing how evolutionary stories have been shaped by the male-as-default model. With humour, rigor, and narrative flair, Bohannon guides readers through 200 million years of adaptation, reproduction, and resilience. The book balances big-picture science with engaging case studies that make the evolutionary timeline feel surprisingly accessible. Bohannon’s voice is bold and confident, challenging readers to rethink what they think they know about biology. This is a transformative work that shifts the lens on human origins in groundbreaking ways.

Yaroslav Trofimov offers a gripping first-year account of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, drawing on frontline reporting and extensive interviews. He captures the confusion, bravery, terror, and resilience that define war as lived by civilians and soldiers alike. Trofimov’s writing is swift, vivid, and unsparing, yet never sensationalist. He situates the conflict within its broader historical and geopolitical context while keeping human stories at the book’s core. The narrative reveals how nations respond under existential threat and how ordinary people become agents of history. It is essential, urgent reportage from one of the world’s most consequential conflicts.

Alpa Shah’s investigation into India’s political prisoners is both harrowing and urgently important. She examines how thousands of activists, journalists, and ordinary citizens have been detained under anti-terror laws, often without trial. Through first-hand interviews and field research, Shah exposes the mechanisms of repression that operate within India’s democratic framework. Her writing is clear, fearless, and deeply committed to justice. She centres the voices of those targeted, restoring their humanity in a system designed to erase them. The book is a blistering indictment of state power and a vital act of documentation.

Steve Coll’s The Achilles Trap is an extraordinary investigation into the U.S.–Iran relationship through the figure of Qassem Soleimani. Coll draws on extensive interviews, intelligence documents, and field reporting to reveal how miscalculation, secrecy, and mutual distrust shaped decisions on both sides. The book moves between Washington and Tehran with equal authority, balancing geopolitical analysis with intimate portraits of the individuals who wield power. Coll’s prose is measured but gripping, turning complex diplomacy into a narrative of tension and consequence. He demonstrates how small choices escalate into international crises. It is masterful, meticulous political writing of the highest calibre.

Daniel Finkelstein’s family memoir is at once heartbreaking and historically illuminating, tracing how his parents survived the horrors of Nazism and Stalinism. He tells their stories with clarity, warmth, and a deep sense of responsibility, illuminating how totalitarian regimes shape individual lives in ways both devastating and enduring. Finkelstein expertly contextualises his family’s experiences within the broader history of twentieth-century Europe. His writing avoids sentimentality, leaning instead on precise, humane storytelling. The book becomes a meditation on memory, trauma, and inherited identity. It is a profound reminder of the human cost of political extremism.

Jason Okundaye’s Revolutionary Acts blends memoir, cultural criticism, and political analysis to chart the history of Black British queer life. He foregrounds the activists, artists, and everyday people who built community in the face of systemic exclusion. Okundaye writes with tenderness, wit, and incisive clarity, revealing how queer Black identity is shaped by migration, racism, and state neglect. His archival work is impressive, bringing overlooked histories into the spotlight. The personal and political merge seamlessly, creating a narrative as intimate as it is urgent. This is a vibrant, necessary contribution to contemporary British political writing.

Lyndsey Stonebridge explores the intellectual legacy of Hannah Arendt and her relevance to modern political crises. Through elegant, thoughtful analysis, she connects Arendt’s ideas on freedom, responsibility, and truth to contemporary challenges from authoritarianism to public apathy. Stonebridge writes with clarity and moral conviction, making complex theory accessible without simplifying it. She shows how philosophy becomes a tool for living and acting in the world, not just abstract thought. The book feels like a conversation across time, urging readers to reclaim the responsibilities of citizenship. It is both intellectually invigorating and politically inspiring.

Nathan Thrall’s book is a masterful work of narrative nonfiction that examines the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a single tragic event: a school bus accident on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Thrall uses this local catastrophe to illuminate the structural inequalities that define life under occupation. His reporting is sensitive, exhaustive, and guided by deep moral clarity. By focusing on one father’s desperate search for answers, Thrall transforms geopolitical abstraction into a deeply human story. The book refuses easy binaries, instead presenting a painfully honest account of systems that shape grief. It is one of the most affecting political works of the decade.