{"title":"The Orwell Prize for Political Writing 2026 Shortlist","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"for-the-sun-after-long-nights-the-story-of-iran-s-women-led-uprising-by-nilo-tabrizy-fatemeh-jamalpour-pre-order","title":"For the Sun After Long Nights: The Story of Iran’s Women-led Uprising by Nilo Tabrizy \u0026 Fatemeh Jamalpour","description":"\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn 2022, in response to the killing of Mahsa Jina Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman who died in police custody after being arrested for not wearing her hijab, thousands of Iranians - mostly women - took to the streets in protest. Fatemeh Jamalpour had just returned to the country after working in London and, despite the threat of imprisonment or death for her work as a journalist, joined the throngs of people fighting to topple Iran's religious extremist regime. Across the globe, Nilo Tabrizy, who emigrated from Iran with her family and was raised in Canada, was covering the protests and state violence in Iran, knowing that spotlighting the women on the frontlines and the systemic injustice of the Iranian government meant she would not be able to safely return to Iran in the future.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThough they had only met once in person, Nilo and Fatemeh corresponded constantly, often through encrypted platforms in order to protect Fatemeh's privacy and security. As the protests continued to unfold, the sense of sisterhood they shared led them to embark on an effort to document the spirit and legacy of the movement, and the history, geopolitics, and influences that led to this point. At once deeply personal and assiduously reported, For the Sun After Long Nights offers two perspectives on what it means, as a journalist, to cover the stories that are closest to one's heart - both from the frontlines and from afar.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eHardback \u003cbr\u003ePublication: 6 Nov 2025, Atlantic \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cbr\u003eISBN: 9781805460923\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eExtent: 336 pages\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"David's Bookshop","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56025305940350,"sku":null,"price":22.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0753\/0892\/5225\/files\/9781805460923.jpg?v=1753973988"},{"product_id":"stalin-s-apostles-the-cambridge-five-and-the-making-of-the-soviet-empire-by-antonia-senior","title":"Stalin’s Apostles: The Cambridge Five and the Making of the Soviet Empire by Antonia Senior","description":"\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSTALIN'S APOSTLES is a radical new look at the way five people allowed their obsession with Communist ideology to overshadow any sense of morality or decency - or loyalty to their country.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhy did these gilded charming men, blessed with brains, and beauty and opportunities, choose to betray their country? Using recently declassified files, STALIN'S APOSTLES explores as never before the treachery of Donald Maclean, Guy Burgess, Kim Philby, John Cairncross and Keeper of the Queen's Pictures Anthony Blunt, all radicalised while at Cambridge University in the 1930s. Their clandestine supply of British and US intelligence material gave Stalin an inside track on US and British decision-making until the implosion of the spy-ring in May 1951. There was barely a secret, barely a decision made, that Stalin did not know about, thanks to his Cambridge spies, and his networks in the United States.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Five became tools in Stalin's imperial scheme, responsible directly and indirectly for the death of thousands of men and women fighting against Soviet domination. Shielded for so long by the British Establishment, four of the five were never prosecuted for their crimes. As STALIN'S APOSTLES reveals, they were exposed as much by their own incompetence as by forensic investigation by the CIA, MI5 or MI6. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAnd in time another dictator emerged as ruthless as Stalin, but with an even greater desire to establish a Russian Empire that would threaten Western democracy. 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He went on to become an expert on the German army and the Holocaust, before turning his attention to his native country. In Israel: What Went Wrong?, Bartov explores the transformation of Zionism from a movement of Jewish emancipation and liberation into a state ideology of ethno-nationalism, exclusion and violent domination of Palestinians.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHe traces the process whereby Israel – whose establishment in 1948 received international support in the aftermath of the Holocaust – now faces accusations of war crimes and genocide. What are the implications of Israel’s near total impunity for the post-1945 regime of international law? And how do we understand the widespread support for these policies by Israel’s Jewish citizens? 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As recently as 1928, a vast swathe of Asia – India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, Bhutan, Yemen, Oman, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait – were bound together under a single imperial banner, an entity known officially as the ‘Indian Empire’, or more simply as the Raj. It was the British Empire’s crown jewel, a vast dominion stretching from the Red Sea to the jungles of Southeast Asia, home to a quarter of the world’s population and encompassing the largest Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Zoroastrian communities on the planet.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIts people used the Indian rupee, were issued passports stamped ‘Indian Empire’, and were guarded by armies garrisoned in forts from the Bab el-Mandeb to the Himalayas And then, in the space of just fifty years, the Indian Empire shattered. Five partitions tore it apart, carving out new nations, redrawing maps, and leaving behind a legacy of war, exile and division. Shattered Lands, for the first time, presents the whole story of how the Indian Empire was unmade.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHow a single, sprawling dominion became twelve modern nations. How maps were redrawn in boardrooms and on battlefields, by politicians in London and revolutionaries in Delhi, by kings in remote palaces and soldiers in trenches. Its legacies include civil war in Burma and ongoing insurgencies in Kashmir, Baluchistan and Northeast India, and the Rohingya genocide.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIt is a history of ambition and betrayal, of forgotten wars and unlikely alliances, of borders carved with ink and fire. And, above all, it is the story of how the map of modern Asia was made. Sam Dalrymple’s stunning history is based on deep archival research, previously untranslated private memoirs, and interviews in English, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Punjabi, Konyak, Arabic and Burmese.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFrom portraits of the key political players to accounts of those swept up in these wars and mass migrations, Shattered Lands is vivid, compelling, thought-provoking history at its best.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cem\u003eHardback | Publication: 19 Jun 2025, HarperCollins \u003cbr\u003eISBN: 9780008466817\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eExtent: 528 pages\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"David's Bookshop","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57418802626942,"sku":null,"price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0753\/0892\/5225\/files\/9780008466817.jpg?v=1778843194"},{"product_id":"the-elements-of-power-a-story-of-war-technology-and-the-dirtiest-supply-chain-on-earth-by-nicolas-niarchos","title":"The Elements of Power: A Story of War, Technology and the Dirtiest Supply Chain on Earth by Nicolas Niarchos","description":"\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHow we became addicted to a supply chain that wreaks havoc across the globe. Epic, shocking, and deeply reported, The Elements of Power tells the story of the war for the global supply of battery metals – essential for the decarbonization of our economies – and the terrible, bloody human cost of this badly misunderstood industry.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCongo is rich. Swaths of the war-torn African country lack basic infrastructure, and, after many decades of colonial occupation, its people are officially among the poorest in the world. But hidden beneath the soil are vast quantities of cobalt, lithium, copper, tin, tantalum, tungsten, and other treasures.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eRecently, this veritable periodic table of resources has become extremely valuable because these metals are essential for the global “energy transition”—the plan for wealthy nations to wean themselves off fossil fuels by shifting to sustainable forms of energy, such as solar and wind. 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Why is the Western Sahara, a source for phosphates, still being treated like a colony? Who must pay the price for progress? With unparalleled, original reporting, Nicolas Niarchos reveals how the scramble to control these metals and their production is overturning the world order, just as the global race to drill for oil shaped the twentieth century. Exploring the advent of the lithium-ion battery and tracing the supply chain for its production, Niarchos tells the story both of the people driving these tectonic changes and those whose lives are being upended. 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In the twenty years since 2001, Afghan women obtained legal degrees, became judges and set out to transform their country – tackling corruption, and reducing horrifying levels of violence against women and children. These educated and powerful women led the mission to build a modern democracy.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHowever, when Western forces withdrew in August 2021, the women judges of Afghanistan and their families faced mortal danger. The Escape from Kabul is the never-before-told story of the escape of nearly 200 women and their families, thanks to a network of professional friends, female judges and lawyers from around the world, who refused to abandon them to the Taliban. 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In the late 1990s, as the world was waking up to the power of the internet, Chinese authorities began con­structing a system of online censor­ship now known as the Great Firewall. But far from being barren, the digital world behind the firewall brimmed with new subcultures and tech innovations, offering many citizens previously unimaginable connection and opportunity.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eToday, as the country's leadership intensifies its control of public discourse and Western headlines reduce the Chinese public to a faceless monolith, journalist Yi-Ling Liu presents an intimate por­trait of the en­trepreneurs, activists, artists, and dreamers navigating China's transformation into both the world's largest online user base and one of its most populous authoritarian states. Drawing on years of firsthand reporting, The Wall Dancers equips readers with the tools to assess the past, present, and future of a global power. 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