Congratulations to the authors shortlisted for this year’s Samuel Johnson Prize.

Anne Applebaum, chair of judges, said: “We didn’t quite come to blows, but the shortlist meeting was truly contentious; it’s hard to imagine how five people sitting in a room on a weekday morning could have disagreed more strongly. Nevertheless I am delighted to say that our list includes some exceptional books, which capture – among other things – the politics of troubled countries, the relationship of life to poetry, the historical understanding of neurodevelopmental disorders and the nature of the new digital world.”

The six titles in contention for this year’s prize are:

• Ted Hughes: The Unauthorised Life by Jonathan Bate
• Landmarks by Robert Macfarlane
• The Four-Dimensional Human: Ways of Being in the Digital World by Laurence Scott
• Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and How to Think Smarter About People Who Think Differently by Steve Silberman
• The Unravelling: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq by Emma Sky
• This Divided Island by Samanth Subramanian

The winner of the 2015 prize will be announced on Monday 2 November at an awards ceremony in London. You can find out more about the Samuel Johnson Prize here.