Shortlist

As hard as it may be to believe, not too long ago, it was actually quite difficult to sell a book about Donald Trump. When investigative journalist David Cay Johnston sought a publisher for a biography shortly after Trump descended his golden escalator and announced his plans to seek the Republican nomination, he couldn't get anyone to bite.  Read more

The British Civil Wars of the mid-17th century are my passion. This extraordinary period has everything: epic battles, espionage and adventure, the only trial and execution of a monarch, and radical constitutional experiments, all documented by newspapers and pamphlets in the "first age of journalism".  Read more

True crime is having a moment. But then, one could say true crime has been having a moment for more than three centuries, since the New England-based minister Cotton Mather published his execution sermons for eager Puritan audiences, then, with an altogether different pamphlet, laid the groundwork for the Salem Witch Trials in 1692.

Before I was a writer, I worked in publishing. I started out as an editorial assistant in a publishing house in New York before working at a literary agency in London, where I spent a decade as a translation rights agent. For five years, I both wrote and worked, squeezing in the writing on nights and weekends.