Midlands authors are encouraged to enter new essay prize worth £2,000
Young writers from across the UK and Ireland have the opportunity to win a prize of £2,000 by entering a new essay competition created and judged by award-winning historical biographers and historians. There is just one month to go until the deadline for entries closes.
The Elizabeth Longford Brief Lives 2025 Essay Award is worth £2,000 to writers from the UK and Ireland aged 35 and under.
The jury of the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography founded in 2003, all eminent historical biographers and historians, are to also judge a new essay prize. The panel consists of Professor Roy Foster (Chair of Judges), Flora Fraser, Antonia Fraser (Elizabeth Longford’s daughter), Richard Davenport-Hines, and Professor Rana Mitter. The winning essay will also be considered for publication in the Times Literary Supplement.
The Brief Lives 2025 Essay Award marks more than two decades since the Elizabeth Longford Historical Biography Prize, worth £5,000, was founded in 2003 by Peter Soros and Flora Fraser in affectionate memory of her grandmother. Recent winners include books by Julian Jackson on de Gaulle, Jackie Wullschläger on Monet and Ramachandra Guha’s Rebels Against the Raj.
Flora and Peter are now sponsoring the Elizabeth Longford Brief Lives 2025 Essay Award, intended to encourage a succinct but penetrating approach to historical biography, as pioneered by John Aubrey. Submissions for the new Award should also embody the qualities of scholarship and strong narrative drive which distinguish Elizabeth Longford’s own work and that of recipients of the ELHB Prize.
Entries to the Brief Lives 2025 Essay Award may be submitted until 30 September 2025 inclusive. The word limit is 3000 or fewer, and the biographical subject, or subjects, should be historical figures of significance.
See elhb.uk/brieflives for more details about the Award, including eligibility.
Submissions for the Elizabeth Longford Brief Lives 2025 Essay Award to be made in pdf form, to: brief.lives@elbh.uk
The Essay Award winner will be announced by historian and television presenter Sir Simon Schama at an Elizabeth Longford Night of History at the NPG on 26 January 2026. This evening at the London National Portrait Gallery will incorporate a panel discussion by leading practitioners of historical biography and a reception.
Flora Fraser says, “With just one month left to submit, we encourage emerging writers and historians to seize this opportunity and bring compelling lives to light. The Elizabeth Longford Brief Lives 2025 Essay Award celebrates the power of biography to illuminate the past in fresh and thoughtful ways, and we look forward to discovering bold new voices in this year's entries.
“My grandmother was passionate about encouraging younger authors to write and explore the art of historical biography. We’re excited to see the range of voices and subjects coming through in this year’s submissions. The Essay Award champions emerging talent in historical biography and as judges, we’re looking for essays that bring fresh insight, strong research, and vivid storytelling to lives that deserve to be better known.”
