The £30,000 Baillie Gifford prize is the UK’s most prestigious award for nonfiction writing. This year’s shortlist spans history, popular science and memoir.

The six titles on the 2018 shortlist are:

• Hello World: How to be Human in The Age of The Machine by Hannah Fry
• The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre
• Amateur: A True Story About What Makes a Man by Thomas Page McBee
• Imperial Twilight: The Opium War and the End of China’s Last Golden Age by Stephen R Platt
• Chernobyl: History of A Tragedy by Serhii Plokhy
• She Has Her Mother’s Laugh: The Powers, Perversions and Potential of Heredity by Carl Zimmer

Fiammetta Rocco, The Economist’s culture correspondent and Chair of Judges, says: ‘To judge the 2018 Baillie Gifford prize is to feel once again how miraculous books are. We have read about history and war and science and spying. And along the way we’ve been thrilled, jolted, consoled, informed and illuminated. It’s been a remarkable journey.’

The winner will be announced on 14 November and will receive £30,000, while each of the shortlisted authors will receive £1,000. Find out more about this year’s shortlist and the Prize itself here.