Dear Colleagues and Students,

We are pleased to share with you the news that Chair Professor of Humanities Frank Dikötter has been awarded the 2011 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction for his book "Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-62."

The announcement was made by chair of the judges, Ben Macintyre, at an awards ceremony on Wednesday, July 6, at the Royal Institute of British Architects. He praised the book as an “epic record of human folly” and “essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century”.

We congratulate Professor Dikötter on this well-deserved recognition.

Professor Kam Louie

Dean of Arts

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About the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize

The BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction is one of the UK’s most prestigious literary prizes. Worth £20,000 to the winning author, it is the 13th year of the prize which aims to reward the best non-fiction published in the UK, from biography, travel and popular science to the arts and current affairs.

About Frank Dikötter

Frank Dikötter is Chair Professor of Humanities at the University of Hong Kong. He has pioneered the use of archival sources and published nine books that have changed the way historians view modern China. "Mao’s Great Famine: The History of China’s Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-62" is published by Bloomsbury and Walker Books. It was selected as one of the Books of the Year in 2010 by The Economist, The Independent, the Sunday Times, the London Evening Standard, The Telegraph, the New Satesman and the BBC History Magazine.