A biography of writer V.S. Naipaul and a modern account of travel through Africa in the footsteps of H.M. Stanley have been nominated for Britain's richest non-fiction prize.

One U.S. writer and five from Britain were nominated for the £30,000 ($58,467 Cdn) Samuel Johnson prize in a shortlist released Thursday.

The World Is What It Is, an authorized, but sometimes unflattering, biography of Naipaul, one of the 20th century's most remarkable writers, is by British writer Patrick French.

Blood River: A Journey to Africa's Broken Heart, was written by Daily Telegraph correspondent Tim Butcher, who travelled on foot, via motorbike and dugout canoe on a journey through the Congo in 2000 that reproduced the voyage of African explorer Stanley.

Other nominees are:

• Crow Country, by Mark Cocker, a naturalist's study of rooks and jackdaws, both members of the crow family.
• The Whisperers by Orlando Figes, an account of the paranoia experienced by ordinary Russian families under Stalin.
• The Rest is Noise, a musical history of the 20th century, by Alex Ross, music critic for the New Yorker.
• The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher Or The Murder at Road Hill House, a true story of an 1860s murder and Scotland Yard detective Jack Whicher by Kate Summerscale.

The competition is open to non-fiction books written in English. Last year's winner was Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran.

The winner is to be announced July 15.