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Top names in running for James Tait Black prize

28.04.08 Anna Richardson

Mohsin Hamid, John Burnside and Daniel Mason have been nominated for the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes, along with Rosalind Belben and newcomer Gee Williams. The five novels competing for the £10,000 fiction prize are Our Horses in Egypt by Rosalind Belben (Vintage), The Devil's Footprints by John Burnside (Vintage), The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid (Penguin), A Far Country by Daniel Mason (Picador) and Salvage by Gee Williams (Alcemi).

The shortlisted works for the biography section, also with a £10,000 prize are Hand Me My Travelin' Shoes by Michael Gray (Bloomsbury), God's Architect by Rosemary Hill (Allen Lane), Edith Wharton by Hermione Lee (Vintage), Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore (Phoenix) and John Stuart Mill by Richard Reeves (Atlantic).

The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are the only major British book awards judged by scholars and students of Literature.

The broadcaster James Naughtie will announce the winners at a ceremony at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in August. Naughtie is one of four honorary Edinburgh graduates on the advisory committee for the awards, along with Ian Rankin, Alexander McCall-Smith, and the Director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, Catherine Lockerbie.

The manager of the awards, Professor Colin Nicholson of the University of Edinburgh said: "This year's short-listed novels combine cracking story-telling with exceptional writing skills, as do the nominated biographies, which additionally  offer fascinating insights into the lives of some extraordinary people."

Anna Richardson Prize James Tait Black Memorial Prize

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