His book C: Because Cowards Get Cancer Too is among five others in the running for the 1999 Samuel Johnson Prize, which is worth £30,000.

Each of the five shortlisted authors will be awarded £2,500 for making it so far in the prize competition, which is in its first year.

Chairman of the judges, broadcaster James Naughtie, said: "The judges consider this to be a wonderful crop of shortlisted books, all of them addressing their readers directly and all of them marked by the originality which the prize wants to celebrate.

"We think this is an outstanding final list."

Judges for the award include Cherie Booth, wife of the prime minister, who is on her first literary prize panel. The award will be presented on 14 June.

Full list of shortlisted authors and books:

• Anthony Beevor (UK) - Stalingrad (Penguin)
• John Diamond (UK) - C: Because Cowards Get Cancer Too (Vermilion).
• Richard Holmes (UK) - Coleridge: Darker Visions (HarperCollins).
• Ian Kershaw (UK) - Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris (Allen Lane).
• David Landes (US) - The Wealth And Poverty Of Nations (Little, Brown).
• Ann Wroe (UK) - Pilate: The Biography Of An Invented Man (Cape).