BBC Samuel Johnson Prize For Non-Fiction 2010
A Culture Show Special
Thursday 1 July 11.20pm-12.20am BBC TWO
Andrew Graham Dixon presents a Culture Show special on the 2010 Samuel Johnson Prize for Non Fiction.
The programme comes exclusively from the evening’s ceremony at the Royal Institute of British Architects as the judges make their final deliberations and reveal the winner of the £20,000 prize.
The Culture Show also looks at the shortlisted books in detail and each of the six nominated authors discusses their passion for their subject:
Alex Bellos describes how he attempts to make the world of maths a friendlier place in Alex’s Adventures In Numberland, an entertaining look at the role everything from algebra to logarithms play in our everyday lives.
Barbara Demick speaks about her novel, Nothing To Envy: Real Lives In North Korea, which weaves together the stories of six residents of Chongin and touchingly reveals the culture and concerns of these North Korean citizens.
Luke Jennings discusses his memoir, Blood Knots, a tale of friendship, honour and coming of age with his childhood love of fishing as the backdrop.
Andrew Ross Sorkin talks about his book, Too Big To Fail, an enlightening account of how the actions of Wall Street over the last decade led to the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression.
Jenny Uglow chats to the Culture Show about A Gambling Man, her vibrant portrait of Charles II and the experimental decade through which the Restoration emerged.
And finally Richard Wrangham discusses his book Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human, which makes a captivating argument as to how cooking made us the social, sexual and intelligent species we are today.
