Pimlott prize unveiled (original) (raw)

The distinguished Labour historian and biographer, Ben Pimlott, who died of leukemia last year, is being honoured with a new £3,000 prize for political writing.

The Guardian and the Fabian Society are jointly sponsoring the award, announced today, to commemorate the warden of Goldsmiths College, London, whose political writing included biographies of such senior Labour figures as Harold Wilson and Hugh Dalton.

The award, which requires entrants to submit a 3,000- word article by March 18, will this year take biography as its theme. Candidates should submit a sketch of a "public figure, past or present, whose life and work illuminates the social and political challenges of the times we live in".

The winner will be chosen by a panel comprising Tony Wright MP; Jean Seaton, Pimlott's widow; Sunder Katwala, general secretary of the Fabians; and Annalena McAfee, editor of the Guardian's Saturday review, which will publish the chosen entry.

· More information on how to enter the essay competition is available here