Shortlist Debate -
26th March 2008
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Shortlist Debate 2008
The Orwell Prize has announced its shortlists for 2008. The shortlists were announced before a Reuters debate on 'Has the Left Stopped Thinking?'.
Seven authors and six journalists are left in the running for the Prizes. The judges opted to shortlist seven books instead of six for the first time, as the quality of submissions made their job so difficult.
Chair of judges, Professor Jean Seaton, said: ‘Watching the judges select a shortlist from the longlist was painful: anybody who thinks that political thought is weary should pick up one of the books from the longlist or browse some of the journalism. The range and intensity of the writing made it so difficult to choose that we opted for seven books instead of the usual six, and as one of the judges said at the end of a hard day’s judging, it was surprising and heartening to see the vast health of long form journalism, still bubbling nicely beneath the froth of the daily press.’
The debate was hosted by Reuters, chaired by Sean Maguire (Reuters), and featured Dr Denis MacShane MP, Greg Clark MP, Will Hutton, Peter Hitchens, Matthew Parris and Jean Seaton.
The winners will be announced at the Awards Ceremony, to be held at the Foreign Press Association on 24th April.