Racial injustice in USA; ghost towns in post-industrial Scotland; how maritime history looks from the viewpoint of Aboriginal Australians and Parsis, Mauritians and Malays; the roots of violence that has plagued postcolonial society. These are topics covered in the books shortlisted for the British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding. Rana Mitter talks to the four authors who are:

Cal Flynn for Islands of Abandonment: Life in the Post-Human Landscape
Eddie S. Glaude Jr. for Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Today
Mahmood Mamdani for Neither Settler nor Native: The Making and Unmaking of Permanent Minorities
Sujit Sivasundaram for Waves Across the South: A New History of Revolution and Empire

Producer: Ruth Watts

Previously known as the Al Rodhan prize - you can find interviews with previous winners and shortlisted authors on the Free Thinking website. The winner in 2020 was Hazel V. Carby for Imperial Intimacies: A Tale of Two Islands. Other previous winners include Toby Green, Kapka Kassabova, Neil MacGregor and Karen Armstrong.