AustLit
History
'The Duff Cooper Prize is a literary prize awarded annually for the best work of history, biography, political science or occasionally poetry, published in English or French. The prize was established in honour of Duff Cooper, a British diplomat, Cabinet member and author. The prize was first awarded in 1956 to Alan Moorehead for his Gallipoli. At present, the winner receives a first edition copy of Duff Cooper's autobiography Old Men Forget and a cheque for £5,000.' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duff_Cooper_Prize
Latest Winners / Recipients
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Year: 1987
winner y The Fatal Shore : A History of the Transportation of Convicts to Australia, 1787-1868 London : Collins Harvill , 1987 Z1065904 1987 single work non-fiction 'Traces the fate of the 160,000 men, women and children transported between the dispatch of the First Fleet in May 1787 to Botany Bay, and the arrival of the latest convict ship in 1868 in Western Australia.' (Source: Trove) -
Year: 1983
winner y Collected Poems Melbourne Oxford New York (City) : Oxford University Press , 1983 Z575458 1983 selected work poetry -
Year: 1956
inaugural winner y Gallipoli London : Hamish Hamilton , 1956 Z995979 1956 single work prose war literature'A century has now gone by, yet the Gallipoli campaign of 1915-16 is still infamous as arguably the most ill conceived, badly led and pointless campaign of the entire First World War. The brainchild of Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, following Turkey's entry into the war on the German side, its ultimate objective was to capture the Gallipoli peninsula in western Turkey, thus allowing the Allies to take control of the eastern Mediterranean and increase pressure on the Central Powers to drain manpower from the vital Western Front.
'From the very beginning of the first landings, however, the campaign went awry, and countless casualties. The Allied commanders were ignorant of the terrain, and seriously underestimated the Turkish army which had been bolstered by their German allies. Thus the Allies found their campaign staled from the off and their troops hopelessly entrenched on the hillsides for long agonising months, through the burning summer and bitter winter, in appalling, dysentery-ridden conditions. By January 1916, the death toll stood at 21,000 British troops, 11,000 Australian and New Zealand, and 87,000 Turkish and the decision was made to withdraw, which in itself, ironically, was deemed to be a success.' (Publication summary from Allen & Unwin, 2015 edition)
Works About this Award
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An Expatriate Poet Makes Objects of Desire his Reward John Murche (interviewer), 1984 single work interview
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 25-26 February 1984; (p. 15)