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Greg Grandin's "The Empire of Necessity", a history of
slavery from the early 16th century until the middle of the 19th
century, was among the works that made the short list announced
on Thursday.
Also on the list are John Campbell's "Roy Jenkins", a portrait
of the British Labour Party politician and writer, and Marion
Coutts's "The Iceberg: A Memoir", which is an unflinching
portrayal of her husband's slow death from a brain tumor.
Alison Light's "Common People" is about her English ancestors
while Helen Macdonald's "H is for Hawk" is about a goshawk she
trained to help her deal with the death of her father.
The sixth book is Caroline Moorehead's "Village of Secrets:
Defying the Nazis in Vichy France", about people in a remote
mountain village in France who provided sanctuary for Jews and
helped some of them to escape the Nazis.
Claire Tomalin, chair of judges, described the selections as
"four books by women: two of them historical and two of them
memoirs. Two books by men: a flawless biography and an
extraordinarily enlightening study of slavery in the early
nineteenth century".
The winner of the main prize, worth 20,000 pounds($32,000), will
be announced on November 4.
(1 US dollar = 0.6228 British pound)
(Reporting by Michael Roddy; Editing by Dominic Evans)
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