‘Addictive’ diaries win prestigious non-fiction award

A collection of diaries won the prestigious Baillie Gifford Award for Non-Fiction for the first time.

How to End a Story: Collected Diaries by Helen Garner chronicles the Australian writer’s life from the early stages of her career in bohemian Melbourne, to raising her daughter in the 1970s and her experience of a failing marriage in the 1990s.

Garner’s previous work includes 2014’s The House of Grief, which tells the story of Robert Farquharson on trial for murdering his three sons.

Famous fans include fellow writer David Nicholls and singer Dua Lipa, who said: “Helen Garner’s writing is an exciting discovery. She is one of the most fascinating writers I have ever met.”

The chairman of the judging panel, Robbie Millen, said How to Finish a Story was the unanimous winner of the judging panel, praising it as a “remarkable, addictive book”.

“Garner takes the form of a diary, mixing the intimate, the intellectual and the everyday to new heights,” he continued.

“She is a brilliant observer and listener – every page has a surprising, sharp or funny thought. Her collected diaries are sure to be mentioned alongside ‘Virginia Woolf’s Diary.’

In her review, Rachel Cook of the Observer also referred to the respected modernist author, describing Garner’s collection as “the biggest, richest magazines by a writer since Virginia Woolf”.

It marks the first major UK award win for the Australian, who has belatedly gained attention in the UK since the British publication of three of her books for the first time last year.

The Baillie Gifford Prize honors the best in non-fiction and is open to authors of any nationality.

As the winner, Garner will receive £50,000 and the other shortlisted authors will receive £5,000 each, bringing the total prize value to £75,000.

The selection is made from over 350 books published between November 1, 2024 and October 31, 2025.

Others who made the list were:

• The Revolutionaries: The Story of the Extremists Who Hijacked the 1970s by Jason Burke, about a group of extremists including Carlos the Jackal and the Baader-Meinhof gang.
• The Boundless Deep: Young Tennyson, Science and the Crisis of Belief by Richard Holmes, a biography of the young Alfred Lord Tennyson
• Captives and Companions: A History of Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Islamic World by Justin Marozzi covers slavery in the Islamic world from the 7th century to the present day
• Lone Wolf: Walking the Faultlines of Europe by Adam Weymouth, this book follows a young wolf’s 1000 mile trek across the European Alps
• Electric Spark by Frances Wilson, a biography of the writer Muriel Spark