Six-strong shortlist of £30,000 non-fiction prize covers the murder of Theo van Gogh, the exploits of a pioneering female archaelogist-cum-spy, and a portrait of the chaos of American rule in Iraq following the 2003 invasion.
A book that claims the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq gave a 24-year-old who had never before worked in finance the job of revitalising the Baghdad stock exchange was tonight shortlisted for the £30,000 Samuel Johnson prize for non-fiction.
The book - Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone, by Rajiv Chandrasekaran, former Baghdad bureau chief for the Washington Post - also states that the traffic regulations imposed in the city after the CPA took charge were based on the state of Maryland's laws, downloaded by an aide.