Goodbye Samuel Johnson, hello Baillie Gifford: top non-fiction prize gets new sponsor – and new name

The investment firm has stumped up the cash for an overhaul and vowed to make the award crack America. But do literary prizes actually mean anything to readers?

The future of the UK’s premier non-fiction prize is assured – for another five years at least – as the Samuel Johnson prize announces a new sponsor. The new era brings a new name, with the retitling of the prize in honour of the investment firm that has stumped up the cash. The Baillie Gifford prize for non-fiction has also announced a new ambition – to break America and become “the leading non-fiction book prize in the world”.

It’s the first sign that literary prizes can still attract big money after a year of sponsorship drought, with both the Folio and Impac awards also announcing earlier this year that they were searching for new backers.

Related: Steve Silberman on winning the Samuel Johnson prize: 'I was broke, broke, broke'

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