Ancient History Book Takes Top Prize in London

Edmund Richardson’s biography of Alexander the Great won the Baillie Gifford Prize for nonfiction on Wednesday.

The award carries a 50,000 pound prize, valued at approximately 67,000 dollars. Richardson’s book, Alexander: God, King, Man, was selected from more than 350 entries. It defeated five other finalists for the honor. The ceremony took place in London.

Kirsty Lang, a British journalist who chaired the panel, described the work as the first ancient history book to receive the prize. She noted that the text reads like a novel. Richardson, a classics professor at Durham University, spent ten years researching the project. He translated sources from twelve ancient languages to construct his narrative. The author described the process as spending far too long down far too many rabbit holes.

The book traces the life of Alexander, who inherited a debt-ridden kingdom at age 20. He conquered territory stretching from Greece to India before dying at 32. Richardson stated that no one called him Alexander the Great during his lifetime. He viewed the king as a tributary who was not expected to conquer the world. Richardson said the military expedition transforms reality more profoundly than almost any other event in human history.

The judges called the book a love letter to the humanities. They noted that disciplines like history and archaeology face pressure from university funding cuts in the U.K. and elsewhere. Lang linked the book’s appeal to a surge in popular interest driven by recent media. She cited Christopher Nolan’s film The Odyssey as a factor in this trend. She said ancient Greeks knew how to tell great stories about life, death, and tragedy.

The Baillie Gifford prize has recognized English-language books in various categories since 1999. The award aims to bring fact-based writing to a wider audience. The runner-up list included Patrick Radden Keefe’s London Falling. Other finalists were Nicholas Boggs, Matthew Sweet, Anand Gopal, and Andrea Wulf. Helen Garner won the previous year’s award for her collected diaries.