We’re excited to reveal the shortlist for the RSL Christopher Bland Prize 2022, celebrating outstanding achievements for a debut novelist or non-fiction writer first published aged 50 or over.

Looking ahead, the winner will be announced on Tuesday 7 June.

The five shortlisted titles are:

Yvonne Bailey-Smith, The Day I Fell Off My Island (Myriad Editions)
John Carr, Escape From the Ghetto: The Breathtaking Story of the Boy Who Ran Away from Nazis (Hodder Studio)
Julia Parry, The Shadowy Third: Love, Letters, and Elizabeth Bowen (Duckworth Books)
Charlotte Raven, Patient 1: Forgetting and Finding Myself (Jonathan Cape)
Peter Stott, Hot Air: The Inside Story of the Battle Against Climate Change Denial (Atlantic Books)

Here’s what judges David Baddiel (Chair), Caroline Criado Perez and Naga Munchetty had to say about their choices:

Read more in the press release, including comments from the shortlisted authors.