Runciman Award

The Runciman Award is an annual literary award offered by the Anglo-Hellenic League for a work published in English dealing wholly or in part with Greece or Hellenism.[1] On some years the prize has been awarded jointly and shared between two or more authors. The award is named in honour of the late Sir Steven Runciman and is currently sponsored (since 2021) by the A.G. Leventis Foundation and the Athanasios C. Laskaridis Charitable Foundation.[2] The value of the prize is £10,000.

Recipients

UK prizes

Prizes awarded for books published in the United Kingdom in the previous year:

Year Name Work Editor
1986 David Constantine Travellers in Greece Cambridge University Press
1987 No award - -
1988 John S. Koliopoulos Brigands with a Cause:Brigandage and Irredentism in Modern Greece, 1820-1921 Oxford University Press
1989 Rowland J. Mainstone Hagia Sophia: Architecture,Structure and Liturgy of Justinian’s Great Church Thames and Hudson
1990 John Gould Herodotus Weidenfeld & Nicolson
1991 Sir Hugh Lloyd-Jones The Academic Papers Oxford University Press
1992 Mark Mazower Greece and the Inter-War Economic Crisis Oxford University Press
1992 Antony Beevor Crete: the Battle and the Resistance John Murray
1993 Richard Clogg A Concise History of Greece Cambridge University Press
1994 Paul Magdalino The Empire of Manuel I Komnenos, 1143-1180 Cambridge University Press
1995 Roderick Beaton An Introduction to Modern Greek Literature Oxford University Press
1996 Sir John Boardman The Diffusion of Classical Art in Antiquity Thames and Hudson
1996 Dr Rosemary Morris Monks and Laymen in Byzantium, 843-1118 Cambridge University Press
1997 Andrew Dalby Siren Feasts: A History of Food and Gastronomy in Greece Routledge
1997 Oliver Rackham & Jennifer Moody The Making of the Cretan Landscape Manchester University Press
1997 Gelina Harlaftis A History of Greek-owned Shipping: the Making of an International Tramp Fleet, 1830 to the present day Routledge
1997 Nigel Spivey Understanding Greek Sculpture:Ancient Meanings, Modern Readings Thames and Hudson
1998 George Cawkwell Thucydides and the Peloponnesian War Routledge
1998 Dr Martin West The East Face of Helicon: West Asiatic Elements in Greek Poetry and Myth Clarendon Press, Oxford
1998 Prof. Robin Cormack Painting and the Soul: Icons, Death Masks and Shrouds Reaktion Books
1998 Patricia Storace Dinner with Persephone Granta Books
1999 Ian MacNiven Lawrence Durrell: a Biography Faber & Faber
1999 Christopher Stray Classics Transformed: Schools, Universities and Society in England, 1830-1960 Clarendon Press, Oxford
1999 Dr Jenny March Dictionary of Classical Mythology Cassell
2000 Prof. J. V. Luce Celebrating Homer’s Landscapes Yale University Press
2000 Dr Reviel Netz The Shaping of Deduction in Greek Mathematics: A Study in Cognitive History Cambridge University Press
2001 Dr Cyprian Broodbank An Island Archaeology of the Early Cyclades Cambridge University Press
2002 James Whitley The Archaeology of Ancient Greece Cambridge University Press
2003 Sir John Boardman The Archaeology of Nostalgia:How the Greeks re-created their Mythical Past Thames and Hudson

UK and Worldwide Prizes

From 2004, prizes have been awarded for books published in English anywhere in the world in the previous year:

Year Name Work Editor
2004 Roderick Beaton George Seferis – Waiting for the Angel – A Biography Yale University Press
2005 Mark Mazower Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews Harper Collins
2006 Robin Lane Fox The Classical World Time Warner Book Group
Tom Holland Persian Fire Allen Lane
2007 Bruce Clark Twice a Stranger Granta Books
Robert Holland & Diana Markides The British and the Hellenes Oxford University Press
2008 Imogen Grundon The Rash Adventurer: A Life of John Pendlebury Libri Publications
2009 K.E. Fleming Greece - A Jewish History Princeton University Press
2010 Juliet du Boulay Cosmos, Life and Liturgy in a Greek Orthodox Village Denise Harvey Publishers
2011 Molly Greene Catholic Pirates and Greek Merchants: A Maritime History of the Early Modern Mediterranean Princeton University Press
Emily Greenwood Afro-Greeks: Dialogues Between Anglophone Caribbean Literature and Classics in the 20th Century Oxford University Press
2012 Peter Thonemann The Maeander Valley Cambridge University Press
2013 Simon Goldhill Sophocles and the Language of Tragedy Oxford University Press
2014 Roderick Beaton Byron’s War: Romantic Rebellion, Greek Revolution[3] Cambridge University Press
2015 Armand M. Leroi The Lagoon: How Aristotle Invented Science Bloomsbury Publishing
2016 Sharon E. J. Gerstel Rural Lives and Landscapes in Late Byzantium Cambridge University Press
2017a (jointly) Ivan Drpić Epigram, Art and Devotion in Later Byzantium Cambridge University Press
2017b (jointly) Marc Domingo Gygax Benefaction and Rewards in the Ancient Greek City Cambridge University Press
2018a (jointly) Matthew Simonton Classical Greek Oligarchy Princeton University Press
2018b (jointly) Colm Tóibín House of Names Penguin/Viking
2019a (jointly) Paul J. Kosmin Time and its Adversaries in the Seleucid Empire Belknap Press of Harvard
2019b (jointly) Robin Osborne The Transformation of Athens: Painted Pottery and the Creation of Classical Greece Princeton University Press
2020/21 Roderick Beaton Greece: Biography of a Modern Nation Allen Lane
2022 Ian Collins John Craxton: A Life of Gifts Yale University Press
2023 A. E. Stallings This Afterlife: Selected Poems Carcanet
2024 Islam Issa Alexandria: The City that Changed the World Sceptre

References

  1. ^ "Runciman Award goes to two winners", Kathimerini (edition in English), page 6, Life / Books section, Thursday, June 7, 2007
  2. ^ Two New Sponsors
  3. ^ The Runciman Award 2014 goes to Byron’s War