The Orwell Prize is a British prize for political writing. The Prize is awarded by The Orwell Foundation, an independent charity (Registered Charity No 1161563, formerly "The Orwell Prize") governed by a board of trustees. Five prizes are awarded each year: one each for a fiction (established 2019) and non-fiction book on politics, one for journalism, one for "Exposing Britain's Social Evils" (established 2015); between 2009 and 2012 and returning in 2026, a fifth prize was established in 2023 for reporting or commentary on homelessness. In each case, the winner is the short-listed entry which comes closest to George Orwell's own ambition to "make political writing into an art".
In 2014, the Youth Orwell Prize was launched, targeted at school years 9 to 13 in order to "support and inspire a new generation of politically engaged young writers". In 2015, The Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain's Social Evils, sponsored and supported by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, was launched. In 2023, The Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness, sponsored by the Centre for Homelessness Impact, was launched.
The British political theorist Sir Bernard Crick founded The Orwell Prize in 1993, using money from the royalties of the hardback edition of his biography of Orwell. Its current sponsors are Orwell's son Richard Blair, The Political Quarterly, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Orwell Estate's literary agents, A. M. Heath. The Prize was formerly sponsored by the Media Standards Trust and Reuters. Bernard Crick remained chair of the judges until 2006; since 2007, the media historian Jean Seaton has been the Director of the Prize. Judging panels for all four prizes are appointed annually.
Winners and shortlists
The Orwell Prize for Political Fiction (2019–present) Year Author Title Result 2019MilkmanWinnerIronopolisShortlistSabrinaOrdinary PeopleHouse of StoneRed Clocks2020WinnerDucks, NewburyportShortlistGirl, Woman, OtherHeaven, My HomeGirl2021SummerWinnerAfterlivesShortlistApeirogonLeave the World Behind 2022Small Things Like TheseWinnerCwenShortlistAssemblyApplianceThere Are More ThingsSterling Karat Gold2023WinnerCaleb Azumah NelsonSmall WorldsShortlistEleanor CattonBirnam Wood Jonathan CoeBournville Diana EvansLinda GrantBarbara KingsolverDemon CopperheadSelby Wynn SchwartzAfter Sappho2024My FriendsWinnerOcean StirringsShortlistJames OrbitalOrdinary Human FailingsCaledonian RoadBlackouts2025Heart, Be at PeaceWinnerUniversalityShortlistThere are Rivers in the Sky The HarrowThe Accidental ImmigrantsPrecipiceParallel LinesDream Count2026TranscriptionWinnerUprisingShortlistThe Comfort of Distant StarsFlashlightThis Is Where the Serpent LivesEvery One Still HereJohn of John
The Orwell Prize for Political Writing (2019–present) Year Author Title Result 2019Say Nothing: A True Story Of Murder and Memory in Northern IrelandWinnerMoneyland: Why Thieves and Crooks Now Rule the World and How to Take It BackShortlistHeimat: A German Family AlbumNightmarch: Among India's Revolutionary Guerrillas 2020Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught MeWinnerAppeasing Hitler: Chamberlain, Churchill and the Road to WarShortlistInvisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for MenUnderland: A Deep Time JourneyMargaret Thatcher--Herself Alone: The Authorized Biography Vol. 32021Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition and Compromise in Putin's RussiaWinnerLabours of Love: The Crisis of CareShortlistEat the Buddha: The Story of Modern Tibet through the People of One Town African Europeans: An Untold HistoryOur Bodies, Their Battlefield: What War Does to WomenEnglish Pastoral: An Inheritance2022My Fourth Time, We DrownedWinnerBehind Closed DoorsShortlist and David Wengrow and Anjana AhujaSpike: The Virus vs The PeopleUncommon WealthThings I Have WithheldOrwell's RosesShutdown: How Covid Shook the World's EconomyDo Not Disturb: The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad2023Show Me the Bodies: How We Let Grenfell HappenWinnerTime to Think: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock's Gender Service for ChildrenShortlistInvasion: Russia's Bloody War and Ukraine's Fight for SurvivalWho Cares?: The Hidden Crisis of Caregiving, and How We Solve ItInside Qatar: Hidden Stories from One of the Richest Nations on Earth Divided: Racism, Medicine and Why We Need to Decolonise HealthcareFire of the Dragon: China's New Cold War2024WinnerEve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human EvolutionShortlistHitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad: A Family Memoir of Miraculous SurvivalRevolutionary Acts: Love & Brotherhood in Black Gay BritainWe Are Free to Change the WorldOur Enemies Will Vanish: The Russian Invasion and Ukraine's War of Independence2025Looking at Women, Looking at WarWinnerThe World of the Cold War: 1945–1991ShortlistThe Forbidden Garden of LeningradThe Coming Storm: A Journey into the Heart of the Conspiracy MachineThe Baton and the CrossBroken ThreadsAutocracy Inc.At the Edge of Empire2026WinnerShattered LandsShortlistIsrael: What Went Wrong? and Fatemeh JamalpourFor the Sun After Long NightsThree Years on FireStalin's Apostles
Combined book category (1994–2018) Beginning with 2019, the Book prize was split into fiction and non-fiction categories. Year Author Title Result 1994 Winner1995In Search of a State: Catholics in Northern IrelandWinner1996Season of Blood: A Rwandan JourneyWinner1997Mukiwa: A White Boy in AfricaWinner1998Jennie Lee: A LifeWinner1999Alexander Solzhenitsyn: a Century in His LifeWinner2000Winner2001Virtual WarWinner2002Anthony Blunt: His LivesWinner2003Hoo-hahs and Passing Frenzies: Collected Journalism 1991–2000WinnerChance Witness: An Outsider's Life in PoliticsShortlistLondon Orbital: A Walk Around the M25Marianne in Chains: In Search of the German Occupation 1940-45Patriots: National Identity in Britain 1940-2000Stone Voices: The Search for Scotland2004WinnerBrick LaneShortlistMargaret Thatcher: Volume Two: The Iron LadyRising '44: The Battle For WarsawSupping with the Devils: Political Journalism from Thatcher to Blair2003WinnerFree WorldShortlistJust LawMy Trade: A Short History of British Journalism & Avishai Margalit Occidentalism: A Short History of Anti-WesternismWartime: Britain 1939-19452004Moses, Citizen and MeWinnerUrban Grimshaw and the Shed CrewShortlistI Didn't Do It For You: How the World Used and Abused a Small African NationFrontline: The True Story of the British Mavericks Who Changed the Face of War ReportingBlack Gold of the Sun: Searching for Home in England and Africa2007Having It So Good: Britain in the 1950sWinnerThatcher and Sons: A Revolution in Three ActsShortlistOccupational Hazards: My Time Governing in IraqLions, Donkeys And Dinosaurs: Waste and Blundering in the MilitaryBad Faith: A Forgotten History of Family and FatherlandAlexis de Tocqueville: Prophet of Democracy in the Age of Revolution2008Palestinian Walks: Forays into a Vanishing LandscapeWinnerWhat's Left?ShortlistWildWilliam WilberforceTwo CaravansBad Men2009Fishing in Utopia: Sweden and the future that disappearedWinnerReappraisals: Reflections on the Forgotten Twentieth CenturyShortlistStalin's Children: Three Generations of Love and WarChinese Whispers: The True Story Behind Britain's Hidden Army of LabourDescent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia2010KeeperWinnerRebel Land: Among Turkey's Forgotten PeoplesShortlistFreedom For Sale: How We Made Money and Lost Our LibertyFrom Fatwa to Jihad: The Rushdie Affair and Its Legacyt's Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistle Blower2011WinnerDeath to the Dictator!: Witnessing Iran's election and the Crippling of the Islamic RepublicShortlistHitch-22Let Our Fame Be Great: Journeys among the defiant people of the CaucasusSupermac: The Life of Harold Macmillan2012Dead Men RisenWinnerDarkMarket: CyberThieves, CyberCops and YouShortlistHood RatPeople Who Eat Darkness: The Fate of Lucie Blackman2013WinnerBurying the TypewriterShortlistFrom the Ruins of the EmpireInjusticeLeaving AlexandriaOccupation DiariesOn the Front Line: The Collected Journalism of Marie Colvin2014This Boy: A Memoir of a ChildhoodWinnerCoolie WomanShortlistNot for Turning2015Private Island: Why Britain Now Belongs to Someone ElseWinnerCapital: The Eruption of DelhiShortlistHack Attack: How the Truth Caught Up with Rupert MurdochIn Plain Sight: The Life and Lies of Jimmy SavileModernity Britain: Opening the Box, 1957–1959People's Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revisited2016WinnerCircling the SquareShortlistOther People's Money2017Citizen Clem: A Biography of AttleeWinnerShortlistAll Out War: The Full Story of How Brexit Sank Britain's Political ClassIsland Story: Journeys Around Unfamiliar BritainAnd the Sun Shines Now: How Hillsborough and the Premier League Changed BritainAnother Day in the Death of America: A Chronicle of Ten Short Lives2018Poverty SafariWinnerShortlistTestosterone RexWhat You Did Not TellWinterLovers and Strangers: An Immigrant History of Post-War Britain
The Orwell Prize for Journalism (1994–present) Year Recipients Result 1994Winner1995Winner1995Winner1996Winner1997Winner1998Winner1999Winner2000Winner2001Winner2002Winner2003Winner2004Winner2005Winner2006WinnerShortlist2007WinnerShortlist2008 (revoked in 2011)WinnerShortlist2009WinnerShortlist2010WinnerShortlist2011WinnerShortlist2012WinnerShortlist2013 WinnerShortlist2014WinnerShortlist2015WinnerShortlist2016 WinnerShortlist2017WinnerShortlist2018WinnerShortlist2019WinnerWinner2020Winner and John DomokosNominee2021 and John DomokosWinnerGeorge Arbuthnott and Jonathan Calvert ShortlistChloe Hadjimatheou Tom McTagueSarah O'ConnorMegha Rajagopalan and Alison Killing 2022Winner, Aun Qi Koh, and Drew AmbroseShortlist and Lucy Proctor2023Winner and Katie GunningShortlist with Imogen Anderson, Sanjay Ganguly and Malik Mudassir Hassan2024WinnerShortlist2025WinnerShortlist
The Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain's Social Evils (2015–present) Year Author Title Publisher Result 2015Care of the elderly and vulnerableBBCWinnerCasino, style Gambling as a Social IllShortlistSerco: a hunt for the truth inside Yarl's WoodSlaves in peril on the seaLondon Housing Crisis2016Words fail us: Dementia and the artsWinner, Sarah Neville, and John Burn-MurdochFinancial TimesShortlist, Job Rabkin, and Lee SorrellDetention Undercover: Inside Yarl's WoodChannel 4Investigation into NHS Failings, Matt Writtle, and Kiran MensahEvening Standard, James Ball, Juliette Garside, and David Pegg2017WinnerDrug profiteering exposed Shortlist, Jane Bradley, and Richard HolmesBuzzFeed NewsReal Britain Daily MirrorFrom Brighton the Battlefield, Erica Gornal, and Louise TickleBehind Closed DoorsTrue Vision Aire and The Guardian2018, John Burn-Murdoch, and Christopher NunnOn the EdgeFinancial TimesWinner, Anja Popp, and Dai BakeraHer Name Was LindyChannel 4 NewsShortlistBehind Locked DoorsBBC PanoramaThis Man Had His Leg Broken in Four Places Because He Is GayBuzzFeed UKFour young black men die: were they killed by the police?SpiceManchester Evening News2019Behind County LinesViceWinner2020Winner2021Hope HighBBC Radio 5 LiveWinnerBehind Closed Doors: Modern Slavery in KensingtonShortlistLost to the VirusBritain and the Pandemic1843, Susie Coen, and Sophie BorlandExposing the Care Homes CatastropheMail Investigation Team and Amanda TaubFailings in Britain Leave Victims of Domestic Violence in PerilHate CrimeBBC Newsnight2022BBC NewsWinner2023Migrant care workersWinner Child asylum seekersWinner
The Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness (2023–present) Year Author Result 2026London CentricWinner2026Asha Bird, SW Londoner, Ilford Recorder Tom Burgess, BBC News, BBC Radio 4
London Centric
Joseph Phelan, The Big Issue
Andrew Seaton, The New Statesman
Damian Shepherd, Bloomberg UK
Katharine Swindells, Inside Housing