The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction have announced the shortlist and we’re thrilled to see Time to Think: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock’s Gender Service for Children by Hannah Barnes included among the six commemorated titles.
The Baillie Gifford Prize announcement said: ‘Drawing on internal documents, emails, and testimonies, Barnes examines the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) in Tavistock, which was originally established to provide therapy for young people questioning their gender and has now referred a thousand children for puberty-blocking medication. The book questions whether such medical interventions are appropriate, and highlights concerns that ideological factors may have superseded clinical considerations, leading to a serious medical scandal at GIDS.’
The judges said: ‘This extensive investigation into the Tavistock Centre’s gender identity development service (GIDS) unpicks its systematic failures, from managerial cover-up to obfuscation and woeful lack of due process. Hannah Barnes steadfastly refuses to enter into the Manichean ideological debates and culture wars around gender identity. Instead she unearths the facts to present an alarming story of medical scandal.’
The winner will be announced on Thursday 16 November at an award ceremony at the Science Museum. As part of the celebrations marking the prize’s 25th anniversary this year, it has been decided that as well as the winning author receiving £50,000, the other shortlisted authors will each receive £5,000 (up from £1,000), bringing the total prize value up to £75,000.