Regarded by many as among the most prestigious and worthwhile prizes for literary endeavour, the James Tait Black prizes for fiction and biography are keenly noted by those with serious interest in the state of these arts.

James Naughtie, he of the terrifying interview technique and chair of Radio 4's Book Club programme, proved a wise as well as obvious choice to anchor this year's awards ceremony at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Both Dr. Roger Savage, speaking of the biography category, and Professor Colin Nicholson, covering fiction, conceded that the selection process had proved particularly challenging on this occasion.

The biography short-list contained a range of subjects, all from the 19th or 20th centuries, but offering a variety of insights and perspectives on the times as well as the lives of their subjects. The short listed titles were: Hand Me My Travelin' Shoes: In Search of Blind Willie McTell by Michael Gray; God's Architect: Pugin and the Building of Romantic Britain by Rosemary Hill; Edith Wharton by Hermione Lee; Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore; and John Stuart Mill:Victorian Firebrand by Richard Reeves.

Mid-twentieth-century Georgia (USA), through mid-nineteenth-century Britain to Georgia (eastern Europe) takes in a considerable sweep of time as well as place, but Dr. Savage had words in praise of them all, before announcing the award had gone to Rosemary Hill for her impressive biography of Augustus Pugin.

Professor Nicholson pointed out the unique and democratic process by which titles achieve the short list. Traditionally, senior members of the English Literature department of the University of Edinburgh arrive at this by dint of post-graduate students reading through some 15 books apiece and making recommendations. An advisory panel was made up this year of novelist Ian Rankin, the Book Festival's own Catherine Lockerbie, Professor Alexander McCall Smith, neatly bridging any gap between the University and literature as a profession, and the aforesaid James Naughtie.

Professor Nicholson commented on the high standard of entries, short-listed to Our Horses in Egypt by Rosalind Belben; The Devil's Footprints by John Burnside; The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid; A Far Country by Daniel Mason; and Salvage by Gee Williams. The winner is, of course, Our Horses In Egypt by Rosemary Belbin, conscious enough of her good fortune to refer to the James Tait Black awards as "the gold standard." In which case, all the works included for consideration are likely to continue to be appreciated as much, and in some ways one hopes more, than the metal itself.

Times: Aug 23 at 19:00

Copyright Bill Dunlop August 2008

Published EdinburghGuide.com August 2008