Press Release
The short list for the 2016 Runciman Award was announced today by the Anglo-Hellenic League on behalf of the judges.
The books from which the winner will be selected are:
Clio’s Other Sons – Berossus & Manetho
John Dillery
University of Michigan Press
Prime Ministers in Greece – The Paradox of Power
Kevin Featherstone and Dimitris Papadimitriou
Oxford University Press
Rural Lives and Landscapes in Late Byzantium
Sharon E J Gerstel
Cambridge University Press
The Edinburgh History of the Greeks, 1453 to 1768 – The Ottoman Empire
Molly Greene
Edinburgh University Press
Battling the Gods – Atheism in the Ancient World
Tim Whitmarsh
Alfred A Knopf (US), Faber (UK)
‘This year the prize attracted an exceptional field of books on a wide range of topics from the ancient past to our own times. We are delighted that the subject of Greece and Greek culture is giving rise to so much original and lively writing. The strength of our short list presents us with a tough challenge when we meet to decide on the winner in June.’
Professor Tom Harrison (Chairman of the judges)
The winner of the £9,000 award will be announced at a ceremony at the Hellenic Centre, 16/18 Paddington Street, London W1, at 7pm on Tuesday 14 June 2016. All are welcome to attend, but please send names in advance.
For fuller information please visit our new website specific to the book prize.
Notes for editors
The Runciman Award, named after Sir Steven Runciman, author and former chairman of the Anglo-Hellenic League, was first awarded in 1986. Sponsored since 1999 by the National Bank of Greece, it is awarded by the Anglo-Hellenic League on the advice of a panel of four judges.
The aim of the award is to celebrate the finest new books on Greek history and culture from the earliest times to the present, to reward good accessible writing (which Runciman’s works exemplified), and to promote wider knowledge of Greece’s contribution to civilisation and values.
The award judges for 2016 are:
Professor Tom Harrison, St Andrews University (chairman)
Dr Dionysios Stathakopoulos, King’s College, London
Mr Dionysis Kapsalis, National Bank of Greece
Dr John Penney, Wolfson College, Oxford.
The Anglo-Hellenic League was founded in 1913 and is dedicated to friendship and understanding between the UK and Greece. It is a Registered Charity (no. 278892). In addition to administering the Runciman Award the League organises events and activities which promote its aims. The office of the League is at the London Hellenic Centre.
More information about the short-listed books, the judges, and previous winners, is on a new website; and about the Anglo-Hellenic League on www.anglohellenicleague.org. Please direct any further enquiries to the Runciman Award administrator by email to info@runcimanaward.org.
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