David Olusoga won the £2,000 (about $2,575) English PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History, which celebrates "the best nonfiction on a historical subject in any period up to and including the 1960s," for Black and British: A Forgotten History, the Bookseller reported. The title was also shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize, longlisted for the Orwell Prize and was accompanied by a four-part BBC Two television series in 2016.
Chair of judges Jean Seaton called the winning book "a wonderful read, but it won because it was so surprising. It discovers unexpected stories of black people in Britain, but it is as much about the ebb and flow of how the British have made that story (sometimes negatively, sometimes positively) part of the national narrative.... Above all, this story--sometimes shaming and chilling, but equally inspiring and strange--is told with a great calm and curiosity. The tone invites us all to reflect and become part of the reassessment. It is a tremendous achievement."