The short list of six books for the 2017 RSL Ondaatje Prize, an award of £10,000 for “a distinguished work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry evoking the spirit of a place”, is due to be announced by April 25. The judges this year are Alexandra Harris (short-listed last year for Weatherland, her account of how weather has been written and painted in England through the centuries), Henry Hitchings and Mimi Khalvati; the winner will be announced at a dinner at the Travellers Club in London on May 8.

Last year’s winner was Peter Pomerantsev for Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible (Faber and Faber), his electrifying portrait of Vladimir Putin’s Russia.