John Vailliant wins Baillie Gifford nonfiction prize with ‘highly relevant’ work on wildfires
Canadian-American writer John Vaillant has won this year’s £50,000 Baillie Gifford prize for his book Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World, which judges said was both “exceptional” and “terrifying”.
Vaillant’s book tells the story of the wildfires that struck Fort McMurray in Alberta, Canada in 2016, while taking in the connected histories of the oil industry and climate science. It is the first book on the topic of the climate emergency to win the prize, the UK’s most prestigious honour for non-fiction, since it started in 1999.
Fire Weather is “very well researched, meticulously told” and “highly relevant for our times”, said Frederick Studemann, judging chair and Financial Times literary editor. It is of “great literary merit” and “forces you to ask some questions of yourself”, he added.
Vaillant’s win comes in a year when Baillie Gifford, the investment management company that sponsors the prize, faced criticism for its investments in the fossil fuel industry. In October, more than 150 authors and industry professionals signed a letter calling on the company to divest from oil, coal and gas projects.
In August, more than 50 authors including Zadie Smith, Ali Smith and last year’s winner of the Baillie Gifford prize, Katherine Rundell, called on the Edinburgh book festival to drop the company as a sponsor if it did not stop investing in the fossil fuel industry. Based on calculations by media outlet the
Ferret, Baillie Gifford has up to £5bn invested in corporations that profit from fossil fuels.
“We’re obviously aware of the events in Edinburgh,” said Studemann, highlighting that though the investment firm has been the primary sponsor of the prize since 2015 (before that the award was known as the Samuel Johnson prize), it has no say in the judging process. “It was up to Baillie Gifford to make its case in answer to various challenges that were put to it. Did we then because of this say, ‘Oh we must go and choose a climate change [book]’? No.” He said that he feels “no loyalty” and “no responsibility” to Baillie Gifford.
Vaillant’s book triumphed over five others on the shortlist: Time to Think by Hannah Barnes, Red Memory by Tania Branigan, Revolutionary Spring by Christopher Clark, Time’s Echo by Jeremy Eichler and Mr B by Jennifer Homans. Each of the shortlisted authors will receive £5,000, raised from £1,000 to mark the prize’s 25th anniversary.
Judge and journalist Tanjil Rashid said that Vaillant combines a “forensic investigative voice” with one that resembles a “philosopher of human nature” who is “dwelling on the nature of fire and the dark nature of humanity”.
Alongside Studemann and Rashid on the judging panel were Ruth Scurr, writer and historian;Andrew Haldane, chief executive of the Royal Society of Arts; Andrea Wulf, historian and author; and Arifa Akbar, theatre critic for the Guardian.
Previous winners of the award include Antony Beevor, Jonathan Coe and Hallie Rubenhold. Last year, Rundell won the prize for her book SuperInfinite: The Transformations of John Donne.