PAST WINNERS

The Duff Cooper Prize was first awarded in 1956, to the historian and war-correspondent Alan Moorehead for Gallipoli, his now-classic account of the 1915-16 Dardanelles campaign.

Winners since then have included works of social and political history, biography, memoir, travel-writing, literary criticism, nature-writing and poetry.

These days, we announce the shortlist and award the Prize early in the year following the year of publication. For example, books published between 1 Jan and 31 December 2025 were eligible for the 2026 prize. For details, see our terms and conditions of entry.

  • 2025

    Sue Prideaux

    Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin

    Faber & Faber

  • 2024

    Julian Jackson

    France on Trial: The Case of Marshal Pétain

    Allen Lane

  • 2023

    Anna Keay

    The Restless Republic: Britain without a Crown

    HarperCollins

  • 2022

    Mark Mazower

    The Greek Revolution: 1821 and the Making of Modern Europe

  • 2021

    Judith Herrin

    Ravenna Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe

  • 2020

    John Barton

    A History of the Bible

  • 2019

    Julian Jackson

    A Certain Idea of France: The Life of Charles de Gaulle

  • 2018

    Anne Applebaum

    Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine

  • 2017

    Christopher de Hamel

    Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts

  • 2016

    Ian Bostridge

    Schubert's Winter Journey - Anatomy of an Obsession

    Faber & Faber

  • 2015

    Patrick McGuinness

    Other People’s Countries: A Journey into Memory

    Vintage

  • 2014

    Lucy Hughes-Hallett – The Pike

    The Pike

    Fourth Estate

  • 2013

    Sue Prideaux – Strindberg: A Life

    Strindberg: A Life

    Faber & Faber

2012

ROBERT
DOUGLAS-FAIRHURST

Becoming Dickens: The Invention of a Novelist

2011

SARAH BAKEWELL

How to Live: A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer

2010

ROBERT SERVICE

Trotsky: A Biography

2009

KAI BIRD & MARTIN J SHERWIN

American Prometheus: the Triumph and Tragedy of J Robert Oppenheimer

2008

GRAHAM ROBB

The Discovery of France

2007

WILLIAM DALRYMPLE

The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi 1857

2006

MAYA JASANOFF

Edge of Empire: Conquest and Collecting on the Eastern Frontiers of the British Empire

2005

MARK MAZOWER

Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews 1430-1950

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2004

MARK MAZOWER

Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews 1430-1950

2003

ANNE APPLEBAUM

Gulag: A History

2002

JANE RIDLEY

The Architect and his Wife

2001

MARGARET MACMILLAN

Peacemakers: The Paris Peac conference of 1919 and its Attempt to End War

2000

ROBERT SKIDELSKY

John Maynard Keynes

1999

ADAM HOCHSCHILD

King Leopold’s Ghost

1998

RICHARD HOLMES

Coleridge: Darker Reflections

1997

JAMES BUCHAN

Frozen Desire: An Inquiry into the Meaning of Money

1996

DIARMUID MACCULLOCH

Thomas Cranmer: A Life

1995

GITTA SERENY

Albert Speer: His Battle with the Truth

1994

DAVID GILMOUR

Curzon: Imperial Statesman

1993

JOHN KEEGAN

A History of Warfare

1992

PETER HENNESSY

Never Again: Britain 1945-1951

1991

RAY MONK

Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius

1990

HUGH CECIL & MIRABEL CECIL

Clever Hearts: Desmond and Molly MacCarthy, A Biography

1989

IAN GIBSON

Federico Garcia Lorca

1989

IAN GIBSON

Federico Garcia Lorca

1988

HUMPHREY CARPENTER

A Serious Character: The Life of Ezra Pound

1987

ROBERT HUGHES

The Fatal Shore

1986

ALAN CRAWFORD

C R Ashbee: Architect, Designer and Romantic Socialist

1985

ANN THWAITE

Edmund Gosse: A Literary Landscape 1849 – 1928

1984

HILARY SPURLING

Ivy When Young: The Early Life of Ivy Compton-Burnett 1884 – 1919

1983

PETER PORTER

Collected Poems

1982

RICHARD ELLMAN

James Joyce

1981

VICTORIA GLENDINNING

Edith Sitwell: A Unicorn Among the Lions

1980

ROBERT BERNARD MARTIN

Tennyson: The Unquiet Heart

1979

GEOFFREY HILL

Tenebrae

1978

MARK GIROUARD

Life in the English Country House

1977

E R DODDS

Missing Persons