Dr Kojo Koram wins PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize 2023 for book exploring the aftermath of the British Empire

Dr Kojo Koram commented: “I am very grateful to the judges at English PEN for selecting Uncommon Wealth for the 2023 PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize. It was an honour just to be shortlisted amongst such fantastic authors but to actually win the prize was more than I could have imagined.”  

Uncommon Wealth: Britain and the Aftermath of Empire  delves into the little known and shocking history of how Britain treated its former non-white colonies after the end of empire. It explores how an interconnected group of British capitalists enabled horrific inequality across the globe, profiting in colonial Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.   

The judging panel said: “Uncommon Wealth is a rare treasure. It shows us, in lucid, engaging prose, how our current economic crises in Britain and inequalities across the globe are bound up in and impacted by the aftermath of empire.”  

Chair of the judging panel, Dan Hicks, said: “With its meticulous, urgent and highly original retelling of the imperial origins of contemporary British socio-economic realities, Kojo Koram follows the money to show how colonialism continues to shape our contemporary world. The result is that most unusual thing: a book about the past that will have resonance for years to come.” 

Dr Kojo Koram was announced as the winner at the Weston Library, Oxford, and received a Prize of £2,000, endowed by former PEN member Marjorie Hessell-Tiltman’s bequest. Dr Aviah Sarah Day, Lecturer in the School of Social Sciences, was also one of six authors shortlisted for the Prize with her book, Abolition Revolution.