Originally Published 11 June 2004

Professor Jonathan Bate, Leverhulme Research Professor of English Literature in the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies, has been shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize, the UK’s leading literary prize for non-fiction.

Dr Bate's book ‘John Clare: A Biography’ is one of six books to be shortlisted for the prize. The book has also been shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature’s Ondaatje Prize, the Heinemann Prize and, earlier this year, was shortlisted in the Literature category of the South Bank Show Awards. In addition, the book recently won the Ken Book Award from the National Alliance for Mental Illness, for ‘a distinguished literary contribution to the understanding of mental illness’.