The Royal Society of Literature Giles St Aubyn Awards for Non-Fiction are annual awards, granted by the Royal Society of Literature (RSL) to authors engaged in writing their first non-fiction book for a mainstream audience. The prize provides additional time or resources for writing or research, as well as raising the profile of the book when published.
Recipients must have a publishing contract and be citizens of either the UK or Ireland, or have been residents in one of these for at least the three years previous to the award.
The award was established in 2017, and secured in perpetuity through a bequest from author and RSL Fellow Giles St Aubyn. The awards replaced the earlier RSL Jerwood Award, which existed from 2004 to 2016 and was funded by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation.
Giles St Aubyn (1925-2015) wrote 14 non-fiction books and taught history for nearly 40 years at Eton College. A nephew of Vita Sackville-West, he counted John Betjeman, John le Carré and the Queen Mother among his friends.RSL website
Recipients +List of recipients, titles and publishersYear1st prize£10,0002nd prize£50003rd prize£2500 (from 2020)Judges2023 Oliver BascianoOutcast: A History of Leprosy, Humanity and the Modern World(Faber & Faber) Taj AliCome What May, We’re Here to Stay: A Story of South Asian Resistance(Manchester University Press) Katherine DunnRight Here, Right Now: The Hidden History of How the Global Positioning System Shaped the Modern World(Mudlark, Harper Collins) Tom BurgisFiona St AubynLeila Aboulela2022Nuzha NuseibehNamesake(Canongate, 2023) Ellen AtlantaPixel Flesh: Modern Beauty Culture and The Women It Harms(Headline, Hachette, 2023) Malachi McIntoshA Revolutionary Consciousness: Black Britain, Black Power, and the Caribbean Artists Movement (Faber, 2025)Homi K. BhahbaFiona St Aubyn Violet Moller2021Tomiwa OwoladeThis is Not America(Atlantic Books, 2022) Tom IrelandThe Good Virus(Hodder & Stoughton, 2022) David VeeversA New History of the World at the Dawn of British Expansion(Penguin Random House/Ebury, 2022)Gwen AdsheadFiona BoyleClive Myrie2020Doreen CunninghamSoundings: A Journey with WhalesVirago, 2022Alice SherwoodThe Authenticity PlaybookHarper Collins, 2022Danny LavelleDown and Out: A Journey Through HomelessnessWildfire, 2022Damian Le BasRamita NavaiFiona St Aubyn2019Harry DaviesOperation InformationThe Bodley Head, 2021Olive HeffernanThe High Seas: The Race to Save the Earth’s Last WildernessProfile Books, 2021†Rebecca FoggBeautiful TraumaGranta, 2022Fiona St Aubyn (Chair)Rachel HewittKenan Malik2018Laurence BlairLost Countries of South America: Travels in a Continent's Past and PresentThe Bodley Head, 2020Lily Le BrunLooking to Sea: Britain Through the Eyes of its ArtistsHodder and Stoughton, 2020†Paul CraddockDragon in a Suitcase: A Cultural History of the Art of TransplantFig Tree, 2020Iain Sinclair (Chair)Laura BatesAida EdemariamFiona St Aubyn2017David FarrierFootprints: In Search of Future Fossils4th Estate, 2019Lisa WoollettScavengingJohn Murray, 2019†Joanna JollyRed River Girl: The Life and Death of Tina FontaineVirago, 2019Richard Holmes (Chair)Afua HirschFiona St Aubyn
† Judges' Special Commendation
References