First prize in the foreign-language publications category went to British author and broadcaster Clare Mulley for her book Agent Zo.
The book explores the life of Elżbieta Zawacka, known as Zo, a Polish World War II freedom fighter and Special Operations Executive agent who was parachuted from Britain into German-occupied Poland.
Mulley wrote on Facebook: "Still pinching myself after being awarded the Polish Foreign Ministry’s Best History by Polish Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski, for my book Agent Zo, now published in Poland as Agentka Zo! This is such an honour, and I very much hope it will draw more attention to this important and truly remarkable history."
Agent Zo has been shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction and received Military History Magazine’s Silver Award for Best Book 2025.
Mulley’s previous works include The Spy Who Loved, which focuses on the daring exploits of Krystyna Skarbek, also known as Christine Granville, Britain’s first female special agent in World War II.
Second prize went to Katarzyna Nowak, a researcher at Central European University in Vienna, for her publication Kingdom of Barracks: Polish Displaced Persons in Allied-Occupied Germany and Austria.
According to McGill-Queen’s University Press, the book’s publisher, Kingdom of Barracks draws on "rich primary material unearthed in over a dozen archives" and "depicts the texture of everyday life in refugee camps in post-World War II Europe within a panorama of the social and cultural history of the twentieth century … In an age of intensifying forced displacement, Kingdom of Barracks sheds new light on past experiences of war and migration that are still deeply relevant in the present."
Third prize was awarded to Australian journalist Anthony Sharwood for Kościuszko: The Incredible Life of the Man Behind the Mountain.
The book explores the life of Polish freedom fighter Tadeusz Kościuszko, after whom Australia's highest mountain is named.
Published by Hachette Australia, the book describes Kościuszko as an "extraordinary revolutionary who was crucial to the success of the American War of Independence, then bravely led an uprising against Russia and other invaders in his native Poland, promising freedom and equality to all who joined his cause."
It adds: "Bestselling author Anthony Sharwood (From Snow to Ash; The Brumby Wars) has spent a lifetime walking, skiing and writing about Kościuszko National Park. Now he sets off on the trail of the man himself, travelling across the USA, Poland and Switzerland to key sites in Kościuszko's life."
Among Polish-language publications, an honorary mention was given to Dziennik ambasadora. Londyn 1994-1995 (An Ambassador's Diary: London 1994-1995) by Ryszard Stemplowski, who served as Poland’s ambassador to Britain from 1994 to 1999.
(mk/gs)
Source: gov.pl