THREAD In 2019, I had the privilege of acting as a judge for the Duff Cooper Literary Prize, awarded annually since 1956 for a work of poetry or non-fiction. It doesn’t
do social media & Covid-19 disrupted this year’s celebrations, but the winner was announced a week or so ago.

We looked at 30 or so books, ranging widely, taking in history, politics, philosophy, tech, nature writing, biography, and memoir. We eventually settled on a shortlist of five. It was a challenging but always convivial process. Championed books didn’t always make the final cut.

They included Julian Barnes, The Man in the Red Coat, Laura Cummings, On Chapel Sands, Orlando Figes, The Europeans, and Charles Moore, Margaret Thatcher, but the winner was...

John Barton, A History of the Bible. The Books and its Faiths ( @AllenLaneBooks). We were bowled over by its extraordinary scholarship and clarity. To read John Barton is to be in hands of a true teacher. Here a lifetime’s work is distilled into a single work. Cont...

The pupil is never forgotten, the work of other scholars are brought into the discussion with great generosity, & the whole is underpinned by a deep humanity. It is hard to imagine any reader, whether or not of faith, finishing this without feeling their world enlarged. ENDS.