The Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-fiction: Winner and Shortlist 2008

The judges felt that the standard was very high in several sub-categories of ‘non-fiction’, and that the collection overall accurately reflected community attitudes and concerns.

Judges: Judith Armstrong (Convenor), Stephen Armstrong, Peter Cochrane, Mary Dalmau and Jenny Lee

Winner

The winner of the 2008 Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-fiction is:

• The Ferocious Summer: Palmer’s Penguins and the Warming of Antarctica
  by Meredith Hooper (Allen & Unwin)

Shortlist

	Van Diemen’s Land James Boyce (Black Inc) A riveting history book whose comprehensive and close research creates rather than hinders accessibility. Also an important work of revision in its study of Tasmania before and after the arrival of free settlers, it offers an attractive intimacy with its subject; the book is beautifully produced and the body of the text elegantly written.
	Napoleon Philip Dwyer (Allen & Unwin) This prodigious, to-be-continued biography brings to life a legendary figure whose leadership profoundly altered the course of European history. The research is detailed in the extreme, and the resultant book highly original, thanks to its humanisation of an iconic soldier/statesman whose hidden foibles and questionable judgements are here uncovered. The many moments of gripping drama make it an enthralling read.
	The Ferocious Summer: Palmer’s Penguins and the Warming of Antarctica - WINNER Meredith Hooper (Allen & Unwin) This book effortlessly gives the reader a lucid yet crucial understanding of what climate change is doing to penguins in the Antarctic and by extension to our world. Important information is engrossingly conveyed on every page through the engaging yet unsentimental voice of a superb writer whose discreet and modest presence humanises scientific endeavour in the Antarctic without itself intruding.
	Detainee 002 Leigh Sales (Melbourne University Publishing) This profoundly disturbing account of contemporary justice during the ‘war on terror’ asks important questions of the US and Australian governments, based on the author’s searching investigation and tireless balancing of the emergent facts. Thoroughly considered and determinedly impartial, the narrative is a crucial and unique contribution to a grave and recent chapter in Australian history.
	Muck Craig Sherborne (Black Inc) This is a brilliant, evocative and sharply stylised account of adolescent life with parents on a farm in New Zealand. As a tragi-comic presentation of a struggle for identity, it is weird, wonderful, fresh and a very lively read.