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The judges for the UK's most valuable prize for non-fiction today, Thursday 12 May, announce the shortlist for the 91Èȱ¬ FOUR Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2005.

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The prize is worth £30,000 to the winner, and £1,000 to each of the six shortlisted authors.

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The 2005 shortlist comprises:

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The 91Èȱ¬ FOUR Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction celebrates the very best in contemporary non-fiction publishing.

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The shortlist this year includes an impassioned literary biography, a haunting and compelling book about modern Britain, two city love affairs, a biography of a one of the twentieth century's most iconic artists, and a gruesome study of London in the 1830s.

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There are three first books in the list: Stuart: A Life Backwards by Alexander Masters, Maximum City by Suketu Mehta and The Italian Boy by Sarah Wise.

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Sue MacGregor comments: "We, the judges, are all genuinely thrilled and delighted by the final six books. Their depth and range is impressive. We have murder, intrigue, high art and impassioned portraits of two of the world's greatest cities.

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"And it's heartening for the future of non-fiction publishing that half the list is made up of books by first time authors. Choosing the ultimate winner is going to be a challenging task indeed."'

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The 2005 judging panel consists of Sue MacGregor (Chair); mathematician and broadcaster Marcus du Sautoy; Sunday Times Deputy Literary Editor Andrew Holgate; historian and broadcaster, Maria Misra; and journalist and broadcaster John Simpson.

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The winner of the 91Èȱ¬ FOUR Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2005 will be announced at an awards dinner at the Savoy Hotel in London on Tuesday 14 June.

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The Shortlist

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Like a Fiery Elephant: The Story of B.S. Johnson by Jonathan Coe (Picador)

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"Quite the most exciting, impassioned and generous literary biography I think I have ever read... A masterpiece and after it nothing will be the same again." The Times

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In his heyday during the Sixties and early Seventies, B. S. Johnson was one of the best-known young novelists in Britain. A passionate advocate for the avant-garde in both literature and film, he gained notoriety for his forthright views on the future of the novel and for his idiosyncratic ways of putting them into practice.

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His innovations included a book with holes cut through the pages, and a novel published in a box so that its unbound chapters could be read in any order. But in November 1973 Johnson's lifelong depression got the better of him, and he was found dead at his north London home. He had taken his own life at the age of 40.

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Jonathan Coe's long-awaited biography is based upon unique access to the vast collection of papers Johnson left behind, and upon dozens of interviews with those who knew him best.

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Jonathan Coe was born in Birmingham in 1961. An award-winning novelist, biographer and critic, his novels include What a Carve Up! which won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the French Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger; The House of Sleep, which won the Writers' Guild Best Fiction Award; and The Closed Circle. He was recently made a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Jonathan Coe lives in London.

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Stuart: A Life Backwards by Alexander Masters (Fourth Estate)

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"I feel so strongly about this strange, funny, sad book that I hardly know where to begin. My enthusiasm feels almost limitless. A page-turner. the structure of Stuart is a masterstroke, allowing buried secrets to be uncovered like hunks of beef beneath silver domes." The Observer

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Stuart Shorter's brief life was one of turmoil and chaos. Stuart was homeless, with many of the problems this sub-section of British society display: alcoholism, drug-addiction, crime, and violence.

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Alexander Masters retraces Stuart's troubled journey. Scattered with glimpses of the author's friendship with Stuart in the years before his death, Masters gives us Stuart's life in reverse, tracing his route in reverse through the post-office heists, attempts at suicide, the many spells in prison, back to a troubled time at school and a violent childhood that lead to the trouble that was to follow him all his life.

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Alexander Masters lives in Cambridge, where he has worked in a hostel for homeless people. This is his first book.

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Maximum City: A City Lost and Found by Suketu Mehta (Review)

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"'Suketu Mehta's Maximum City is quite extraordinary - he writes about Bombay with an unsparing ferocity born of his love. It's the best book yet written about that great, ruined metropolis." Salman Rushdie

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Mehtu weaves his own story within the lives of the many individuals he meets during his time in the city. In a world where crime, sex and celebrity are easily mixed with religion, extreme poverty and tradition, he attempts to discover the reasons why people choose to follow their dreams in Mumbai.

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Suketu Mehta is a writer and journalist based in New York. He was born in Calcutta and raised in Bombay and New York. Maximum City won The Kiriyama Prize in March 2005. This is his first book.

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Istanbul: Memories of a City by Orhan Pamuk (Faber & Faber)

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"Orhan Pamuk has remained faithful to his opulent muse. This quietly instructive and enchanting elegy to a redeemed childhood and to Istanbul itself will bring the world to his feet. It should be read, and reread, simply for joy." The Observer

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With a unique sense of history and gift for narrative, Pamuk revisits the houses, streets and neighbourhoods of his childhood, his daydreams and pastimes, and his own family's secrets and idiosyncrasies.

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What begins as a portrait of the artist as a young man becomes a portrait of an extraordinary city. Pamuk guides the reader through Istanbul's lost paradises, its monuments and dilapidated Ottoman villas, back streets and waterways, and introduces the city's many writers, artists and historians.

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Orhan Pamuk is the author of many books, including The White Castle, The Black Book and The New Life. In 2003 he won the International IMPAC Award for My Name is Red, and in 2004 Faber published the translation of his novel Snow. He lives in Istanbul.

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Matisse the Master by Hilary Spurling (Hamish Hamilton)

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"A superlative achievement . Outstanding as an interpreter of his art and life alike, Spurling provides fresh illuminations on every page." The Times

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The preface to Matisse the Master begins with a quote from Matisse himself: "'If my story were ever to be written down truthfully from start to finish it would amaze everyone".

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Until the publication of The Unknown Matisse, the first volume of Spurling's biography of Henri Matisse, the few facts known about his life had been distorted by inaccuracy, misunderstanding and glaring gaps.

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Hilary Spurling is the author of The Unknown Matisse: The Early Years, 1869-1908. Her other biographies include Ivy: The Life of Ivy Compton-Burnett; Paul Scott: A Life; La Grande Thérèse: The Greatest Scandal of the Century; and The Girl from The Fiction Department: A Portrait of Sonia Orwell.

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She was arts editor, theatre critic and subsequently literary editor for The Spectator during the Sixties. She is a regular reviewer for The Observer and the Daily Telegraph. She lives in London.

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The Italian Boy: Murder and Grave-Robbery in 1830s London by Sarah Wise (Jonathan Cape)

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"Indispensible reading" Peter Ackroyd

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In 1831, the authorities unearthed a series of crimes at No. 3, Nova Scotia Gardens in East London that appeared to echo the notorious Burke and Hare killings in Edinburgh three years earlier.

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After a long investigation, it became known that a group of body snatchers were supplying the anatomy schools with fresh 'examples' for dissection. The case became known as 'The Italian Boy' and caused a furore that led directly to the passing of controversial legislation that marked the beginning of the end of body snatching in Britain.

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Sarah Wise is a freelance journalist and a regular contributor to The Guardian, Independent on Sunday Review, Observer magazine and The Times. She has also worked on women's magazines, including Marie Claire.

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She completed an MA in Victorian Studies at Birkbeck College in 1996. This is her first book.

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Former Winners of the 91Èȱ¬ FOUR Samuel Johnson Prize

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1999 Stalingrad by Antony Beevor

2000 Berlioz: Servitude and Greatness by David Cairns

2001 The Third Reich: A New History by Michael Burleigh

2002 Peacemakers: The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 by Margaret Macmillan

2003 Pushkin: A biography by T.J.Binyon

2004 Stasiland by Anna Funder

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Notes to Editors

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The judges may be available for interview and can be contacted through Colman Getty PR.

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The winner of The 91Èȱ¬ FOUR Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2005 will be announced at an awards dinner at the Savoy Hotel in London on Tuesday 14 June.

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The 91Èȱ¬ FOUR Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction is open to books in the areas of current affairs, history, politics, science, sport, travel, biography, autobiography and the arts. Books published in English by writers of any nationality are eligible for the prize, provided they are published in the UK between 1 May 2004 and 30 April 2005.

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The 91Èȱ¬ FOUR Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction is managed by a steering committee and administered by Colman Getty PR. The steering committee is made up of

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Stuart Proffitt, Chair (Publishing Director, Penguin)

Antony Beevor (historian and author)

Mark Bell (91Èȱ¬ FOUR)

Martin Grindley (independent bookseller)

Dotti Irving (Chief Executive, Colman Getty PR)

Adam Kemp (91Èȱ¬ Arts)

Mervyn King (Governor, The Bank of England)

James Naughtie (broadcaster, 91Èȱ¬ Radio 4's Today Programme)

Peter Straus (literary agent, Rogers, Coleridge and White)

Martin Taylor (International Adviser for Goldman Sachs).

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91Èȱ¬ FOUR televises the awards ceremony and features complementary programming on the channel and online support on bbc.co.uk/bbcfour

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The 91Èȱ¬ FOUR Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction logo is available from Colman Getty PR.

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