January 13, 2015, by Charlotte Anscombe
Nottingham academics are shortlisted twice in national book awards
Dr Matthew Goodwin and Professor Philip Cowley are celebrating after being been shortlisted for national book awards.
The political authors from the University’s School of Politics and International Relations, will be battling it out in the PADDYPOWER Political Book Awards 2015.
‘Revolt on the Right’ by Dr Goodwin is up for Political Book of the Year and ‘Sex, Lies and the Ballot Box’ by Professor Cowley is shortlisted for the Practical Politics Book of the Year – both books are co-authored by Dr Rob Ford from The University of Manchester.
Revolt on the Right
The Political Book of the Year is awarded to the author of the book which has analysed, explained and made accessible the structures and processes of political thought and debate.
‘Revolt on the Right’ has attracted major attention this year. Since its release in March 2014, the book was reviewed in almost every national newspaper, described in The Spectator as “one of the most important books on British politics for years” and in The Times as “the book to arm yourself with for those dinner parties when the talk turns to politics”.
Throughout the entire year Revolt on the Right was mentioned in more than 170 national newspaper articles on British politics and was also cited in speeches by the Leader of the Opposition, Ed Miliband, and the two Conservative Members of Parliament who defected to Ukip, Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless. The book was subsequently listed by both the Financial Times and The Guardian as one of the ‘best books of 2014’
Goodwin and Ford were also awarded the Political Studies Association ‘Communicator Prize’ for their efforts to share the research findings widely, described as providing “a model for how political science research should be disseminated”.
Sex, Lies and the Ballot Box
The Practical Politics Book of the Year Award is given to the author of a book which has analysed, explained and made accessible the structure and processes of politics, either current or past.
Sex, Lies and the Ballot Box, is described by the Guardian and Independent as a ‘fascinating’ collection of essays. It describes quirky facts such as why councillors should change their name to Aaron Aardvark and why men are bluffing when they seem more knowledgeable about politics than women.
‘The Times describes the read as ‘a revelation, a paperback with an eye-catching title and essays by 51 political scientists…superb and eminently quotable.’
Whilst the Mail on Sunday says that it ‘knits academic research with accessible and thought-provoking questions. If you love elections you’ll be hooked.’
‘Elections are interesting’, Professor Cowley said, ‘because they involve people: those who stand, those who vote for them, those who don’t vote at all. Like most things involving people, explaining what they do and why they do it is not always straightforward. But it is always revealing’. The book covered traditional electoral subjects such as the importance of leaders and the economy, but also how your views of cats reveals your partisanship and the sexual habits of different party supporters. ‘No book of mine has ever been covered in Pink News’, said Cowley, ‘let alone twice’.
To hear more from Professor Cowley himself about his award-nominated book, listen to his and Dr Ford’s BBC interview here http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02d5055
The awards ceremony will take place at London’s BFI IMAX cinema on 28 January.
No comments yet, fill out a comment to be the first
Leave a Reply