Kirsty Lang

But in that time, it's established itself as an important award, bringing attention and a significant boost in sales to the best contemporary nonfiction.

This year's shortlist was announced today, and joining us now to talk us through it on a line from Greece is a familiar name, Kirsty Lang, this year's chair of the judges.

Um, welcome to Front Row, Kirsty, or welcome back, I should say.

Well, it's great to be back.

Um, we look forward, uh, to hearing who actually wins.

Uh, you're going to announce that on the fourth of November.

Thank you very much, um, Kirsty Lang, chair of the judges of this year's Baillie Gifford Prize.

Finally tonight, no real winners in a divorce case, except for the lawyers, of course.

The country is split between those who believe in light regulation and further exploitation of the country's natural resources, and those who want to preserve Brazil's rich natural ecosystems and wildlife.

Kirsty Lang has just come back from one of the country's major cattle-producing regions, where a deal's been struck to please locals on both sides.

They call it the Pantanal, from the Portuguese word for swamp.

It's a floodplain in the midwest of Brazil, near the border with Bolivia and Paraguay.

Another more ambitious plan supported by the conservationists is to create a transcontinental wildlife corridor which would stretch from Central America through Brazil and down to Argentina, allowing these magnificent creatures to roam free

once again.

Kirsty Lang.

And finally, the BBC's World Affairs correspondent Mark Doyle died this week.