Edmund Richardson, a professor of classics at Durham University, has won the £50,000 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction for his biography, Alexander: God, King, Man. The book, which explores the life of the ancient ruler, is the first work of ancient history to receive the award since its inception in 1999.
A Decade of Research
The announcement was made at a ceremony in London on Wednesday, November 4. Richardson, 44, spent over a decade researching the life of Alexander, a project that took him across four continents and required him to translate sources from 12 ancient languages. His work examines the ruler’s trajectory from a young man who inherited a debt-ridden Macedonian kingdom at age 20 to a conqueror who reshaped the ancient world before his death in Babylon at age 32.
Richardson described the process as an arduous journey, noting he spent far too long, down far too many rabbit holes. He remarked that terrible things tend to happen to people who take up papyrus or laptop to write the Alexander story,
noting that Callisthenes, the great-nephew of Aristotle, was crucified while attempting to document the history.
It’s wonderful to celebrate @Durham_Classics professor Edmund Richardson, winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize (@BGPrize) for Non-Fiction for 'Alexander: God, King, Man', a biography of Alexander the Great. An amazing achievement! 👉 https://t.co/gQAW2nBJiP#BGPrize2026 pic.twitter.com/TYuTix8bo3
Lang praised the biography for its narrative pull and scholarly depth, describing it as blockbuster history with page-turning narrative pull, a cracking cinematic story about the ancient world involving a masterful assembly of research materials alongside exceptional literary craft.
She suggested the work should appeal to fans of Christopher Nolan’s epic movie version of The Odyssey, noting that such stories help drive a surge of popular interest in ancient Greek classics because they knew how to tell great stories.
Humanity on an Impossible Scale
In his exploration of the Macedonian king, Richardson sought to uncover the real Alexander before he became great. He told the Associated Press that no one called him Alexander the Great in his lifetime and that no one expected him to conquer the world; rather, he was initially viewed as his father’s slightly disappointing son and a tributary. Richardson emphasized that the military expedition transforms reality more profoundly than almost any other event in human history and connects the world up in ways that it has never been connected before.
Last night the brilliant Edmund Richardson won the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction with his cinematically excellent Alexander: God, King, Man. Huge congratulations to Edmund and all the other shortlisted authors. pic.twitter.com/HaY2R0eGZJ
The author expressed his shock at the win, stating, To tell you the absolute truth, I still don’t believe it. He noted that when writing about stories over 2,000 years old, one does not expect people to pay attention, but the fact that judges connected with the story meant it was worth telling. Richardson admitted to feeling absolute terror at the idea of coming up against the thousands of versions of the story written by people he admires, noting that Alexander himself slept with The Odyssey under his pillow.
Richardson Wins the Baillie Gifford Prize
The Baillie Gifford Prize is considered a major international honor. Richardson’s book beat five other finalists, including:
- London Falling by American journalist Patrick Radden Keefe
- Baldwin: A Love Story by Nicholas Boggs
- The Great Dictator by Matthew Sweet
- Days of Love and Rage by Anand Gopal
- The Traveler by Andrea Wulf
The judging panel included Bea Carvalho, the head of books at Waterstones; writer and cultural historian Dr. Tiffany Jenkins; the literary editor of The Spectator, Sam Leith; and editor and reporter at The New York Times, Ravi Somaiya. The judges ultimately called the book a love letter to the humanities and the work of historians and archaeologists, at a time when those disciplines are under pressure from university funding cuts in the U.K. and elsewhere.
Last year’s winner of the prize was Australian writer Helen Garner for her collected diaries, How to End a Story. Richardson, who noted that Alexander wants to transform the world – and he leaves it in ruins, expressed deep gratitude for the honor, calling it one of the greatest honours of my life.
More on Edmund Richardson
📚 And the winner is… Edmund Richardson for his book Alexander: God, King, Man – 🏆 Winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction 2026. Here's what our judges had to say about our #BGPrize2026 winner!https://t.co/uaNircWkdQ pic.twitter.com/SfWybjrw9Z
Edmund Richardson wins the 2026 Baillie Gifford prize for 'Alexander: God, King, Man'. He drew on more than a decade of research across four continents, translated sources from 12 ancient languages, and included recent archaeological finds.https://t.co/CpUKv7dQDr
