Daily Times

Three years almost to the day since the Turkish author Ahmet Altan was first jailed in the wake of the country’s failed coup, he has been long-listed for the £50,000 Baillie Gifford prize for non-fiction for his prison memoir I Will Never See the World Again.

First imprisoned in 2016, Altan received a life sentence in 2018 for sending out “subliminal messages in favour of a coup” on television and attempting to overthrow the government. PEN America has called his imprisonment “a horrific assault on freedom of expression” and authors including JM Coetzee and AS Byatt have demanded his release in an open letter saying that his “crime is not supporting a coup but the effectiveness of his criticism of the current government”.

Put together from notes given to his lawyers, I Will Never See the World Again reflects that “never again would I be able to kiss the woman I love, embrace my kids, meet with my friends, walk the streets. I would not be able to watch the sunrise”.

Ahmet Altan’s memoir is on an eclectic 12-book long-list that ranges from Guardian journalist Amelia Gentleman’s exposé The Windrush Betrayal, to Furious Hours, Casey Cep’s investigation into Harper Lee’s attempts to write a true crime story.

The longlist covers contemporary issues – Azadeh Moaveni’s Guest House for Young Widows follows the young women who chose to join Islamic State, while Catrina Davies reflects on the housing crisis in Homesick – as well as more historical stories such as William Dalrymple’s study of the East India Company, The Anarchy, and William Feaver’s biography The Lives of Lucian Freud: Youth.

Ahmet Altan’s memoir is on an eclectic 12-book long-list that ranges from Guardian journalist Amelia Gentleman’s expose The Windrush Betrayal, to Furious Hours, Casey Cep’s investigation into Harper Lee’s attempts to write a true crime story

Observer art critic Laura Cumming makes the cut for On Chapel Sands, her investigation into her mother’s kidnapping at the age of three. Historian Hallie Rubenhold is chosen for The Five, her biography of the women killed by Jack the Ripper, while Dorian Lynskey makes it for his “biography” of George Orwell’s 1984, The Ministry of Truth.

The longlist is completed by Julia Lovell’s Maoism: A Global History, and Ian Urbina’s The Outlaw Ocean, about the lawlessness of the high seas and those who inhabit them.

Stig Abell, editor of the Times Literary Supplement and chair of judges, said the panel had “ended up with a longlist of books that are by turns provocative, magisterial and beautiful pieces of work”.

“Above all, they are companionable: stories to which you are happy to turn and return, some with contemporary resonances, others that are more timeless,” said Abell. “Going from 12 down to six and then picking a winner is going to be a bit of a challenge.”

The winner of the prize will be announced on 19 November, joining previous winners including Serhii Plokhy, who took the award last year for Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy, Antony Beevor and Jonathan Coe.