Duff Cooper Prize

The Duff Cooper Prize is a literary prize awarded annually for the best work of history, biography, political science or (very occasionally) poetry, published in English or French. The prize was established in honour of Duff Cooper, a British diplomat, Cabinet member and acclaimed author. The prize was first awarded in 1956 to Alan Moorehead for his Gallipoli. At present, the winner receives a first edition copy of Duff Cooper's autobiography Old Men Forget and a cheque for £5,000.

An overview

After Duff Cooper's death in 1954, a group of his friends decided to establish a trust to endow a literary prize in his memory. The trust appoints five judges. Two of them are ex officio: the Warden of New College, Oxford, and a member of Duff Cooper's family (initially, Duff Cooper's son, John Julius Norwich for the first thirty-six years, and then his daughter, Artemis Cooper). The other three judges appointed by the trust serve for five years and they appoint their own successors. The first three judges were Maurice Bowra, Cyril Connolly and Raymond Mortimer. At present, the three serving judges are the historian and biographer Lucy Hughes-Hallett, the biographer and novelist Jonathan Keates, and the lawyer Dr. Frank Callanan.[1]

From 2013, the prize has been known as The Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize, following a sponsorship by Pol Roger.[2]

Winners

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "History". The Duff Cooper Prize official website. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
  2. ↑ "Champagne days for winners of the Duff Cooper Prize". London Evening Standard. February 21, 2013. Retrieved August 26, 2013.

External links