Cook wins Charles Taylor Prize

Tim Cook, author of Shock Troops: Canadians Fighting the Great War, 1917–1918, Volume Two has been awarded the 2009 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction.

Globe and Mail columnist Jeffrey Simpson, art and culture expert Shirley Thomson and author Warren Cariou made up the selection jury.

The jury read 135 books and narrowed it down to three finalists:  Sugar: A Bittersweet History by Elizabeth Abbott, Angel of Vengeance: The “Girl Assassin,” the Governor of St. Petersburg and Russia’s Revolutionary World by Ana Siljak, along with Cook’s winning entry.

The 25,000 prize has been handed out annually since 2004 and is given to a Canadian author “whose book best demonstrates a superb command of the
English language, an elegance of style and a subtlety of thought and
perception.”

The winner was announced at a Gala luncheon in Toronto on Feb. 9.