Ashurst Business Literature Prize shortlist announced

15 April 2019 Books+Publishing

The shortlist for the 2018 Ashurst Business Literature Prize has been announced.

The shortlisted titles are:

The Big Four: The Curious and Perilous Future of the Global Accounting Monopoly (Ian D Gow & Stuart Kells, La Trobe University Press)
The Price of Fortune: The Untold Story of Being James Packer (Damon Kitney, HarperCollins)
Swanston: Merchant Statesman (Eleanor Robin, Australian Scholarly Publishing)
Elizabeth Macarthur: A Life at the Edge of the World (Michelle Scott Tucker, Text)
The Lives of Brian (Brian Sherman & A M Jonson, MUP).

Judging panel chair Richard Fisher said this year’s shortlisted books were ‘chosen from a strong field’. ‘Four are biographies; two are concerned with pioneering business people, Elizabeth Macarthur and Charles Swanston whilst the others focus on James Packer and Brian Sherman. The fifth traces the evolution of accounting practice, and particularly the Big Four, from Medici to the modern day.’

The $30,000 award was established by law firm Ashurst (formerly Blake Dawson) and the State Library of New South Wales to ‘encourage the highest possible standards of literary commentary on business and financial affairs written by an Australian author’.

Michael Traill won last year’s Ashurst Business Literature Prize for his book Jumping Ship: From the World of Corporate Australia to the Heart of Social Investment (Hardie Grant).

The winner will be announced on 15 May. For more information, see the State Library of NSW website.

Category: Awards Local news