The shortlist for the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2011 has been announced

The shortlist of six titles was announced last night for the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction, which has a £20,000 first prize

Author and journalist Ben Macintyre, the chair of judges, said: 'This year's shortlist for the Samuel Johnson Prize is a tribute to the breadth and depth of non-fiction writing, a reflection of a remarkable publishing year in which more books have been considered for the prize than ever before.
'As chairman of the judges, I find myself feeling, even before we begin our final deliberations, that while one of these great books certainly deserves to win, five do not deserve to lose.'

The six shortlisted titles are:
Mao's Great Famine, Frank Dikötter (Bloomsbury)
Reprobates, John Stubbs (Viking)
Caravaggio, Andrew Graham Dixon (Allen Lane)
The Rational Optimist, Matt Ridley (Fourth Estate)
Bismarck: A Life, Jonathan Steinberg (Oxford University Press)
Liberty's Exiles, Maya Jasanoff (HarperPress)

The winner will be announced on 6 July, and BBC2 will broadcast a special edition of The Culture Show on 7 July