PEN Ackerley Prize (or, J. R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography) is awarded annually by

English PEN Founded in 1921, English PEN is one of the world's first non-governmental organisations and among the first international bodies advocating for human rights. English PEN was the founding centre of PEN International, a worldwide writers' associat ...

for a literary

autobiography An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...

of excellence, written by an author of British nationality and published during the preceding year. The winner receives £3,000. In recent years, the winner has been announced at the annual English PEN summer party. The prize was established by Nancy West, née Ackerley, sister of English author and editor J. R. Ackerley, and was first awarded in 1982. The prize is judged by the trustees of the J. R. Ackerley Trust; biographer and historian Peter Parker (Chair), writer and painter

Colin Spencer Colin Spencer (born 1933) is an English writer and artist who has produced a prolific body of work in a wide variety of media since his first published short stories and drawings appeared in ''The London Magazine'' and '' Encounter'' when he wa ...

, author Georgina Hammick and writer and critic Claire Harman. There is no formal submission process for the award — judges simply "call in" books to be added to their longlist.

Recipients

* 1982:

Edward Blishen Edward Blishen (29 April 1920 – 13 December 1996) was an English author and broadcaster. He may be known best for the first of two children's novels based on Greek mythology, written with Leon Garfield, illustrated by Charles Keeping, and pu ...

, ''Shaky Relations'' * 1983: Joint winners: **

Kathleen Dayus Kate Dayus (née Greenhill) (a.k.a. Kathleen Dayus; 1 February 1903 – 14 January 2003) was an English writer from the West Midlands. Kate Greenhill was born in Hockley, Birmingham, 1–2 miles NW of the city centre, fifth of seven survivin ...

, ''Her People'' **

Ted Walker Edward Joseph (Ted) Walker FRSL (28 November 1934 – 19 March 2004) was a prize-winning English poet, short story writer, travel writer, TV and radio dramatist and broadcaster. Early life Ted Walker was born in Lancing, West Sussex, the son of ...

, ''High Path'' * 1984:

Richard Cobb Richard Charles Cobb (20 May 1917 – 15 January 1996) was a British historian and essayist, and professor at the University of Oxford. He was the author of numerous influential works about the history of France, particularly the French R ...

, ''Still Life'' * 1985:

Angelica Garnett Angelica Vanessa Garnett (née Bell; 25 December 1918 – 4 May 2012), was a British writer, painter and artist. She was the author of the memoir ''Deceived with Kindness'' (1984), an account of her experience growing up at the heart of t ...

, ''Deceived with Kindness'' * 1986: Dan Jacobson, ''Time and Time Again'' * 1987: Diana Athill, ''After the Funeral'' * 1988:

Anthony Burgess John Anthony Burgess Wilson, (; 25 February 1917 – 22 November 1993), who published under the name Anthony Burgess, was an English writer and composer. Although Burgess was primarily a comic writer, his dystopian satire ''A Clockwork ...

, ''

Little Wilson and Big God ''Little Wilson and Big God'', volume I of Anthony Burgess's autobiography, was first published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in 1986. It won the J. R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography. The work describes a period of over 40 years from Burgess's ...

'' * 1989: John Healy, ''

The Grass Arena ''The Grass Arena'' is an autobiography that was made into a British film released in 1991. It is based on the true story of John Healy. The book had been out of print for a number of years, but was re-issued on 31 July 2008. Storyline Raised ...

'' * 1990:

Germaine Greer Germaine Greer (; born 29 January 1939) is an Australian writer and public intellectual, regarded as one of the major voices of the radical feminist movement in the latter half of the 20th century. Specializing in English and women's literat ...

, ''Daddy We Hardly Knew You'' * 1991:

Paul Binding Paul may refer to: * Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) *Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...

, ''St Martin's Ride'' * 1992:

John Osborne John James Osborne (12 December 1929 – 24 December 1994) was an English playwright, screenwriter and actor, known for his prose that criticized established social and political norms. The success of his 1956 play '' Look Back in Anger'' tr ...

, ''Almost a Gentleman'' * 1993:

Barry Humphries John Barry Humphries (born 17 February 1934) is an Australian comedian, actor, author and satirist. He is best known for writing and playing his on-stage and television alter egos Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson. He is also a film pr ...

, ''More, Please'' * 1994:

Blake Morrison Philip Blake Morrison FRSL (born 8 October 1950) is an English poet and author who has published in a wide range of fiction and non-fiction genres. His greatest success came with the publication of his memoirs ''And When Did You Last See Your Fat ...

, ''When Did You Last See Your Father?'' * 1995:

Paul Vaughan Paul William Vaughan (24 October 1925 – 14 November 2014) was a British journalist, radio presenter (of art and science programmes) throughout the 1970s and 1990s, semi-professional jazz and classical musician and a narrator of many BBC Telev ...

, ''Something in Linoleum'' * 1996: Eric Lomax, ''The Railway Man'' * 1997:

Tim Lott Tim Lott (born 23 January 1956) is a British author. He worked as a music journalist and ran a magazine publishing business, launching '' Flexipop'' magazine in 1980 with ex-''Record Mirror'' journalist Barry Cain. Early life and education In ...

, ''The Scent of Dried Roses'' * 1998:

Katrin Fitzherbert Katrin is a feminine given name. It is a German and Swedish contracted form of Katherine. Katrin may refer to: Sports *Katrin Apel (born 1973), German biathlete * Katrin Beinroth (born 1981), German judoka * Katrin Borchert (born 1969), German ...

, ''True to Both Myselves'' * 1999: Margaret Forster, ''Precious Lives'' * 2000:

Mark Frankland Mark may refer to: Currency * Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina * East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic * Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927 * Finn ...

, ''Child of My Time'' * 2001: Lorna Sage, '' Bad Blood'' * 2002:

Michael Foss Michael may refer to: People * Michael (given name), a given name * Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael Given name "Michael" * Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian and ...

, ''Out of India: A Raj Childhood'' * 2003:

Jenny Diski Jenny Diski FRSL (née Simmonds; 8 July 1947 – 28 April 2016) was an English writer. She had a troubled childhood, but was taken in and mentored by the novelist Doris Lessing; she lived in Lessing's house for four years. Diski was educated a ...

, ''Stranger on a Train'' * 2004: Bryan Magee, ''Clouds of Glory: A Hoxton Childhood'' * 2005:

Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy (17 May 1933 – 16 July 2019) was a British author, known for biographies, including one of Alfred Kinsey, and books of social history on the British nanny and public school system. For his autobiography, ''Half an Arch ...

, ''Half an Arch'' * 2006:

Alan Bennett Alan Bennett (born 9 May 1934) is an English actor, author, playwright and screenwriter. Over his distinguished entertainment career he has received numerous awards and honours including two BAFTA Awards, four Laurence Olivier Awards, and two ...

, ''Untold Stories'' * 2007:

Brian Thompson Brian Earl Thompson (born August 28, 1959) is an American actor. His career began with a small role in the 1984 film ''The Terminator''. He played the villainous "Night Slasher" in the 1986 film ''Cobra (1986 film), Cobra''. His first named r ...

, ''Keeping Mum'' * 2008:

Miranda Seymour Miranda Jane Seymour (born 8 August 1948) is an English literary critic, novelist and biographer. The lives she has described have included those of Robert Graves and Mary Shelley. Seymour, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, has in re ...

, ''In My Father's House'' * 2009:

Julia Blackburn Julia Blackburn (born 1948) is a British author of both fiction and non-fiction. She is the daughter of poet Thomas Blackburn and artist Rosalie de Meric. Julia Blackburn's bohemian and troubled upbringing is the subject of her memoir ''The Th ...

, ''The Three of Us'' * 2010:

Gabriel Weston Gabriel Jessie Corfield Weston (born 15 July 1970 in London) is an English surgeon, author and television presenter. Her memoir entitled ''Direct Red: A Surgeon's Story'' was published in February 2009. It was long-listed for the Guardian First ...

, ''Direct Red: A Surgeon's View of Her Life-or-Death Profession'' * 2011:

Michael Frayn Michael Frayn, FRSL (; born 8 September 1933) is an English playwright and novelist. He is best known as the author of the farce '' Noises Off'' and the dramas ''Copenhagen'' and ''Democracy''. His novels, such as '' Towards the End of the M ...

, ''My Father’s Fortune'' * 2012: Duncan Fallowell, ''How to Disappear'' * 2013:

Richard Holloway Richard Holloway FRSE (born 26 November 1933) is a Scottish writer, broadcaster and cleric. He was the Bishop of Edinburgh from 1986 to 2000 and Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church from 1992 to 2000. Early life and education Born in Pos ...

, ''Leaving Alexandria: A Memoir of Faith and Doubt'' (Canongate) * 2014: Sonali Deraniyagala, ''Wave'' (Virago) * 2015: Henry Marsh, ''Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery'' (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) * 2016: Alice Jolly, ''Dead Babies and Seaside Towns'' * 2017:

Amy Liptrot Amy Liptrot is a Scottish journalist and author. She won the PEN Ackerley Prize 2017 and the Wainwright Prize 2016 for her memoir ''The Outrun''. Biography ''The Outrun'' describes her experience of returning to live in Orkney, where she grew up ...

, ''The Outrun'' (Canongate) * 2018: Richard Beard, '' The Day That Went Missing'' (Harvill Secker) * 2019:

Yrsa Daley-Ward Yrsa Daley-Ward (born 1989) is an English writer, model and actor.Yrsa Daley-Ward

, ''The Terrible'' (Penguin) * 2020: Alison Light, ''A Radical Romance: A Memoir of Love, Grief and Consolation'' (Fig Tree) *2021: Claire Wilcox, ''Patch Work: A Life Amongst Clothes'' (Bloomsbury) *2022: Frances Stonor Saunders, ''The Suitcase: Six Attempts to Cross a Border'' (Jonathan Cape)

References

{{reflist, 30em

External links

Official website.
A Biography awards Awards established in 1982 1982 establishments in the United Kingdom