Final Hitchens title left off Orwell Prize shortlist

Arguably, The final title from Christopher Hitchens was regarded as a shoo-in for the book category shortlist of the prestigious prize for political writing

Arguably was published in September last year, a couple of months before Hitchens' death in December.

The three Orwell Prize shortlists, in the categories of book, journalism and blog, are as follows:

Book: Siddhartha Deb, The Beautiful and the Damned: Life in the New India (Penguin); Misha Glenny, Dark Market: CyberThieves, CyberCops and You (Vintage); Toby Harnden, Dead Men Risen (Quercus); Gavin Knight, Hood Rat (Picador); Richard Lloyd Parry, People Who Eat Darkness: The Fate of Lucie Blackman (Jonathan Cape); Julia Lovell, The Opium War (Pan Macmillan)

Journalism: Edward Docx, Prospect Magazine; the Guardian; Daniel Finkelstein, The Times; Amelia Gentleman, the Guardian; Simon Kuper, Financial Times; Paul Lewis, the Guardian; Twitter; David James Smith, The Sunday Times

Blog: Alex Massie, Alex Massie (www.spectator.co.uk/alexmassie); Ms Baroque, Baroque in Hackney (http://baroqueinhackney.com); BendyGirl, Benefit Scrounging Scum (http://benefitscroungingscum.blogspot.com/);
Lisa Ansell, Lisa Ansell (lisaansell.posterous.com); Rangers Tax-Case, Rangers Tax-Case (http://www.rangerstaxcase.com); Rebecca Omonira-Oyekanmi, Rebecca Omonira-Oyekanmi (http://rebeccaomonira.wordpress.com); Wiggy, Beneath the Wig (http://beneaththewig.com/)

The winners in each category will be announced on 23 May.

Website: http://theorwellprize.co.uk