A speaker heading to this year's Wells Festival of Literature has been longlisted for one of the UK's leading non-fiction prizes.

Award-winning author Andrea Wulf is among 13 writers in contention for the 2026 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction for her latest book, The Traveller: The Revolutionary Life of George Forster and His Search for Humanity.

The prize rewards excellence in non-fiction writing, with this year's longlist ranging across history, biography, current affairs and true crime.

The shortlist will be announced on Thursday, 1 October, with the winner revealed on Wednesday, 4 November.

Wulf's book sets out to restore George Forster as one of the great visionaries of the 18th century.

At just 17, Forster joined Captain James Cook's second voyage, travelling from Antarctica to the islands of the South Pacific and studying the people, cultures and natural world he encountered.

After returning to Europe, he became celebrated across England, France, Germany and Poland and used his growing reputation to argue for freedom and human rights and against empire, racism and slavery.

His political beliefs later drew him directly into the upheaval of the French Revolution.

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Inspired by events in France, Forster became a leader of the short-lived Republic of Mainz before eventually being forced into exile in Paris during the Reign of Terror.

The Traveller traces that journey from youthful explorer to political revolutionary, examining how Forster's travels shaped his belief in equality and humanity.

Wulf is already known for books including The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World, which won the Costa Biography Award and Royal Society Science Book Prize.

She will appear at Wells Festival of Literature on Friday, 23 October.

The festival runs from 16 to 24 October, bringing writers, broadcasters and thinkers to Wells for nine days of talks and events.

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