Great news! Elizabeth Macarthur, a Life at the Edge of the World by Michelle Scott Tucker has been shortlisted for the 2019 Ashurst Business Literature Prize.
Never heard of it? Neither had I, but it’s worth $30,000 to the winner so it’s a prize worth knowing about.
It’s also a prize worth thinking about… why would such an award be set up? According to the website, these are its aims:
The Ashurst Business Literature Prize aims to:
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Encourage business and finance writing and commentary of the highest quality; writing that brings with it the richness that can come from detailed research
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Stimulate those writers with a knowledge of Australia’s business life and to encourage their continued production of insightful, well researched books that can be easily digested by the general reader
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Enable all Australians and the general reader to be better informed about Australia’s commercial life and its participants
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Add another dimension to Australia’s intellectual and cultural life.
Books that are eligible for the prize include corporate and commercial literature, histories, accounts and analyses of corporate affairs as well as biographies of business people. That description sounds a bit dry, but a look at the shortlist gives a different impression, and shows you why a prize that promotes such books is a good idea. Click the links on the titles to see the publisher’s descriptions:
- Elizabeth Macarthur, a Life at the Edge of the World, by Michelle Scott Tucker, see my review
- The Price of Fortune, the Untold Story of Being James Packer, by Damon Kitney
- Swanston, Merchant Statesman, by Eleanor Robin, see Janine’s review at The Resident Judge of Port Phillip
- The Big Four, The Curious Past and Perilous Future of the Global Accounting Monopoly, by Ian D Gow and Stuart Kells
- Brian Sherman, the Lives of Brian Entrepreneur, Philanthropist, Animal Activist, by Brian Sherman
Congratulations to all the authors, editors and publishers! (I shall be barracking for Elizabeth Macarthur, of course, and not because it’s the only one I’ve read. It’s because I loved it.)
The winner will be announced on 15 May 2019.
PS (A-hem) And something else, that had escaped my notice when the second edition of Elizabeth Macarthur came out. Have a close look at the cover…
ANZ LitLovers LitBlog 
Congratulations to Michelle of course but also to you – evidence, if we needed it, that the blogosphere is the next natural home of book reviewing.
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By: wadholloway on April 13, 2019
at 9:51 am
Indeed!
BTW Has my parcel of books arrived at yours yet?
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By: Lisa Hill on April 13, 2019
at 9:56 am
Yes thank you. But last time I was in Perth was a Saturday so I had to phone the PO to hang on to it.
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By: wadholloway on April 13, 2019
at 10:13 am
Ah yes, the PO has so much parcel mail these days that they can’t hang on to it all for long. If you don’t contact them within whatever their pick-up window-of-time is, I think they send it back to their depot. They want us to buy a 24/7 parcel locker, I guess…
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By: Lisa Hill on April 13, 2019
at 10:29 am
The blurb was nothing to do with me, btw. All that stuff is done by the publisher. As Bill says, you are a reviewing force to be reckoned with!
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By: MST on April 13, 2019
at 10:16 am
*blush* I does my best, I does..
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By: Lisa Hill on April 13, 2019
at 10:30 am
And, given this wonderful recommendation, I’ve added it to my reading list. Thank you (again).
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By: Jennifer on April 13, 2019
at 11:56 am
I predict… that you will love it like I did!
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By: Lisa Hill on April 13, 2019
at 2:54 pm
I took a quickscan of all the nominated books
and my conclusion is the only book I really want to read is by
Michelle Scott Tucker! Congratulations to Ms Tucker for her prize nomination and I hope she wins 15 May 2019!
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By: N@ncy on April 13, 2019
at 5:26 pm
I have been in the business world for decades. From time to time I am encouraged to read business related books. The company that I work for even has a lending library. I occasionally indulge. Elizabeth Macarthur sounds interesting and a bit different. Very cool that you were quoted!
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By: Brian Joseph on April 13, 2019
at 8:34 pm
It might just be that I don’t hear enough about what’s available, but I feel a need for more user-friendly books about business issues that impact on consumers. For example, some years ago I read a book about privatisation by an author called Considine. I don’t remember the name of the book or his other name, but I do remember what he wrote about private-public partnerships in Indonesia that always enabled the government to retain some control. If only we had done that too when the energy industry was privatised! if only more people had read that book when they were voting!
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By: Lisa Hill on April 13, 2019
at 9:37 pm
An unusual prize but if it encourages more writing about business affairs that doesn’t present business as if it’s Satan, then hail to the organisers.
Congrats to you for that front page mention. Well deserved recognition
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By: BookerTalk on April 14, 2019
at 12:24 am
It’s true that in some circles business gets a bad press. Obviously it’s business large and small that generates work. But here in Australia the constant downward pressure on wages and job insecurity has made ordinary people resentful. Wage growth has been stagnant for years now, but the cost of living has continued to rise. At the same time, business is always demanding more tax cuts so that there is less money for essential services like health and education.
The argument advanced by the BCA is that lower wages and low corporate taxation are better for jobs, but the rise of the working poor is approaching US standards, and that doesn’t help people pay their power bills or their mortgages.
So yes, there’s a need for easy-to-understand books that set the record straight about how our economy works and what the *real* prospects are for the future. I’d feel better about the way things are if I thought that that it was an informed democracy that voted for it.
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By: Lisa Hill on April 14, 2019
at 9:09 am
I saw this come through MST’s twitter account too, and the prize rang a bell. I vaguely recollect when it was created. As you say on the surface it “sounds” dry, but business doesn’t have to be, particularly if, for us more generalist readers, it’s looked at from a social and or personal point of view.
Anyhow, how wonderful that Michelle’s book has been nominated. Go Michelle.
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By: whisperinggums on April 14, 2019
at 12:11 pm
BTW, hope you have bought a copy of the second ed! How great that it’s gone into a second ed!
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By: whisperinggums on April 14, 2019
at 12:13 pm
Not yet, (I only discovered this yesterday) but I certainly will!
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By: Lisa Hill on April 14, 2019
at 12:45 pm
Kim and I were quoted – not on the cover but inside – the second ed of Foal’s bread. I didn’t see it but Nigel Featherstone did, and told me, so I bought it! Our 5 minutes of fame!
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By: whisperinggums on April 14, 2019
at 2:11 pm
I’ve rung Benn’s Books to check that they have the new edition, and I’m picking up my copy tomorrow:)
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By: Lisa Hill on April 14, 2019
at 3:14 pm
I might do a post on this award for this week’s Monday Musings, since it’s been going for 5 years it seems.
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By: whisperinggums on April 14, 2019
at 5:08 pm
Good idea, I think the info you’re going to need is on their website, and maybe the NSW state library since they seem to administer it. I didn’t find anything much at Wikipedia, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashurst_Australia
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By: Lisa Hill on April 14, 2019
at 6:35 pm
Thanks Lisa. There’s quite a bit on the SL NSW website in fact. I haven’t checked their own website but will do that if I still with the plan. (I could even try to update Wikipedia while I’m at it – no wonder I don’t get enough read!!)
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By: whisperinggums on April 14, 2019
at 6:59 pm
Been away this weekend so a bit late to the party… congrats on your cover quote!
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By: kimbofo on April 15, 2019
at 5:44 pm
Ta muchly….
(Thanks to Twitter) I know what you’ve been up to: gadding about with Simon!
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By: Lisa Hill on April 15, 2019
at 6:12 pm
Ah yes, two days in Liverpool!
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By: kimbofo on April 15, 2019
at 7:19 pm
[…] had been shortlisted for the Ashhurst Business Literature Prize. Her tweet was followed up by Lisa (ANZLitLovers) posting the shortlist on her blog. I decided to save my post for Monday, as it seemed a perfect topic for musing on […]
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By: Monday musings on Australian literature: Ashurst Business Literature Prize | Whispering Gums on April 15, 2019
at 11:00 pm