The James Tait Black Prizes are Britain's oldest literary awards, having been in existence since 1919; they are administered by The University of Edinburgh, and in recent years the winners have been announced at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. The books which have scooped the prizes this year are, from the biography category, Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life
I haven't read the latter, which has certainly not been short of plaudits, but Dame Hermione's masterly biography was my non-fiction book of the year last year (I summed it up elsewhere as "a consummate piece of work, and a thoroughly absorbing account of a most unusual, highly gifted woman"); I commend it to you.
