The Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize is a literary award given each year for the best book written in history, biography, political science, or sometimes poetry, in English or French. The prize was created to honor Duff Cooper, a British diplomat, government official, and writer. It was first given in 1956 to Alan Moorehead for his book Gallipoli. Today, the winner receives a first edition copy of Duff Cooper’s autobiography Old Men Forget and a check for £5,000.

Overview

After Duff Cooper died in 1954, a group of his friends created a trust to provide funding for a literary prize in his honor. The trust selects five judges. Two of these judges hold official positions: the Warden of New College, Oxford, and a family member of Duff Cooper. Initially, this family member was Duff Cooper’s son, John Julius Norwich, for the first thirty-six years, and later, his daughter, Artemis Cooper. The other three judges are chosen by the trust and serve for five years. These judges also choose their own replacements. The first three judges were Maurice Bowra, Cyril Connolly, and Raymond Mortimer. Today, the three judges are biographer Mark Amory, historian Susan Brigden, and TLS history editor David Horspool.

Since 2013, the prize has been called The Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize, following a sponsorship by Pol Roger.