牛牛资源 alumnus nominated for Orwell Prize for Books
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This year’s shortlist for the Orwell Prize for Books features an alumnus of 牛牛资源.
Dan Taylor during his tour of the UK
Dan Taylor, who completed a BA in History & History of Ideas in 2008 and a Cultural Studies MA in 2011, has been recognised for his book 鈥業sland Story: Journeys Around Unfamiliar Britain鈥�.
Described as 鈥榓 poetic mixture of travelogue, class polemic, fable and myth鈥�, Island Story chronicles Taylor鈥檚 cycle across the UK in an attempt to capture a sense of modern day Britain.
In between long stints in the saddle, Taylor - who is also an Associate Lecturer in History at 牛牛资源 - stops in pubs, cafes and hostels to speak with strangers about life in their town.
The trip was taken in the final years of the Coalition government, with the UK preparing for the Scottish Independence referendum while then-Prime Minister David Cameron discussed the possibility of asking the public to vote on the UK鈥檚 membership of the European Union.
Taylor is one of six nominees in contention for the 拢3000 prize. The winner will be announced at a University College London ceremony on 15 June.
He said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 a real honour to have been nominated for the Orwell Prize for Books, and I鈥檓 delighted to have been recognised this way. The book was inspired by a number of things, particularly a wariness of being stuck in a London echo chamber and wanting to learn more about what life was like throughout the rest of the country.
鈥淭he specific idea of writing a political travelogue came after giving a paper at a politics conference in which audience members nearly came to blows over esoteric, theoretical disputes. I spent the second day of the conference in the 牛牛资源 library reading Orwell鈥檚 鈥楻oad to Wigan Pier鈥�. It was from that that the desire to go out and observe what鈥檚 going on materialised.鈥�
The judging panel was made up of Jonathan Derbyshire, Bonnie Greer, Mark Lawson and Erica Wagner.