Hessell-Tiltman Prize - Archive & History
Marjorie Hessell-Tiltman was a member of PEN during the '60s and '70s. On her death in 1999 she bequeathed £100,000 to the PEN Literary Foundation to found a prize in her name.
This prize of £3,000 is awarded annually for a non-fiction book of specifically historical content. Entrants, which may include first British translations, are to be books of high literary merit - that is, not primarily written for the academic market - and can cover all historical periods up to and including the Second World War.
Publishers are invited to draw attention to a maximum of two books on their lists, but neither authors nor publishers can make submissions to the Judges.
2004 Prize Winner
Tom Holland won the 2004 Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History for Rubicon. He received £3000 plus a silver S.T Dupont Pen.
Presenting the Prize, Sir Peter Stothard, Chair of the Panel of Judges, said: Rubicon restores the Roman Republic to life - and elegantly reminds us how it died. For anyone tired of 'what the Romans did for us' and curious about what (and how) the Romans did for themselves, this year's Hessell-Tiltman winner is as good as it gets.
Receiving the Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History, Tom Holland responded: I am greatly honoured to receive this award, and particularly at such an event. Freedom was one of the great ideals of the Roman Republic, and since its extinction was marked by the nailing of a writer's severed hands in the Forum, where better to have Rubicon receive a prize than at a day hosted by PEN.
2004 Prize shortlist
James Buchan: Capital of the Mind: How Edinburgh Changed the World
John Murray
Norman Davies: Rising'44: 'The Battle for Warsaw'
Macmillan
Richard Fletcher: The Cross and the Crescent: the dramatic story of the earliest encounters between Christians and Muslims
Penguin
Tom Holland: Rubicon: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic
Little Brown
Diarmaid MacCulloch: Reformation: Europe's House Divided 1490-1700
Penguin
The judges for the Hessell-Tiltman Prize in 2004 were : Sir Peter Stothard (Chair), Eric Christianson and Jane Dunn.
2003 Prize Winner
Jenny Uglow won the Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History 2003 for The Lunar Men (Faber). The Prize, £3000 plus a silver S.T.Dupont pen, was presented at International Writers' Day 2003 on 7th June at Senate House, University of London.
Michael Burleigh (Chair of the Panel of Judges) presenting the Prize, described the book as
An exuberant collective portrait of the 18th century Midlands businessmen-scientists, the group of friends who made the future that is our past today.
Jenny Uglow responded warmly, saying she was
thrilled to accept the award (... the Lunar Men) worked for the spread of knowledge, invention and liberty, and fought oppression - and would have been tickled pink to win a prize.
The 2003 Prize Shortlist
William Dalrymple: White Mughals - Love and Betrayal in 18th Century India
HarperCollins/Flamingo
Geoffrey Moorehouse: The Pilgrimage of Grace - The Rebellion that Shook Henry VIII's Throne
Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Munro Price: The Fall of the French Monarchy - Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and the Baron de Breteuil
MacMillan
A N Wilson: The Victorians
Random House/Hutchinson
Jenny Uglow: The Lunar Men - The Friends who Made the Future
Faber
2002 Prize Winner
Margaret Macmillan won the inaugural Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History - £3000 plus a silver Dupont Pen - for Peacemakers 
(John Murray).
"Peacemakers is a splendid history of the Versailles Conference, where the glitterers included Queen Marie of Roumania who arrived with a large entourage, a huge wardrobe, and demands for about half of Hungary," said Sir Stephen Tumim, Chair of the Panel of Judges, presenting the prize.
"My book was written for the interested general audience, not least because the history of peacemaking is too important to be left to the purely academic one," said Macmillan. "To be the first winner of this distinguished prize is enormously flattering and encouraging."
Peacemakers also won the 2002 Samuel Johnson Award.