Biographies of Napoleon and two of ‘history's nobodies' have been named joint winners of this year's National Biography Award.

University of Newcastle historian Philip Dwyer received $10,000 for Napoleon, 1769-1799: The Path to Power (Bloomsbury).

‘As a believer in bridging the chasm between academic works and the broader public, my aim with Napoleon was to make history accessible by telling his story and explaining his place in history in everyday language,' he said.

The other winner, These Few Lines: A Convict Story - the lost lives of Myra and William Sykes (ABC Books), builds on the surviving correspondence between an obscure convict and his devoted wife.

'I found Myra's letters particularly poignant,' said the book's author, Curtin University professor of folklore Graham Seal.

‘She was a loyal woman, it comes out in the letters, and she remained committed to him all his life, even though he was sentenced for life.'

First awarded by the State Library of NSW in 1996, the prize this year attracted 33 entries.

This article from Thorpe Bowker's Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker

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