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Michael Taylor (History 2007) has been shortlisted for , an annual award for UK-published non-fiction, for his latest book, .

Impossible Monsters is a narrative history of the relationship between science and religion in the 19th century, offering a fresh and original perspective by approaching the subject through the lens of palaeontology and dinosaurs. Michael says: “I wanted a book that brought together everything in the century: the rise of palaeontology, the discovery of dinosaur fossils, the development of evolutionary biology, and the more general tensions within social, intellectual and cultural contexts in Victorian Britain and further afield that were caused by these scientific innovations.”

An interest in the history of palaeontology might seem a major departure from Michael’s previous research focus on slavery and abolition, but he finds that there are strong links between the two. He adds: “They’re both histories of ideas and politics and culture in 19th-century Britain, but more specifically they’re about new ideas, radical ideas that would overturn established and traditional thinking, and about the fights that went on to propagate these ideas and to persuade people of them. But they’re also – more interestingly, I think – about the conservative and reactionary ideas that were put forth by the opponents of, in one case, abolition and, in this case, evolutionary theory, in order to counteract the influence that they might have on society.”

As an author of popular non-fiction, Michael enjoys the intellectual challenge of making complex historical ideas accessible to a general readership. “The ability to lay out these concepts in comprehensible language is something that’s really satisfying to do, not only because you can see other people understanding things, but also because it suggests that you understand it yourself, so it’s quite a reassuring process,” he says. He finds that the necessary skill set accords strongly with that which he uses in his current role at PWC, where he works in tax litigation and must regularly make complicated matters of jurisprudence or legislation understandable to clients or to non-specialist judges.

While a student at ����Ӱҵ College, Michael was briefly MCR President, earned a Blue in 2010 playing for the Cambridge University Cricket Club and was a member of the Caius team that won University Challenge in 2015. None of this, however, detracted from his studies and his love of history, and he fondly remembers the many hours spent delving into the past in the Caius Library, which he considers “a magnificent place, especially for a historian”.

Michael feels indebted to his education at Caius for nurturing his fascination with 19th-century culture and ideas. “My interest in this period, beside the fact that I loved dinosaurs as a kid, has a lot to do with the teaching and guidance I received from Peter Mandler and Sujit Sivasundaram,” he says. “Peter has moved onto the 20th century now but taught me 19th-century history; and Sujit, although he’s Professor of World History, has always had a really keen interest in the history of science. So I daresay that quite a lot of their knowledge and enthusiasm has rubbed off on me.”

The winner of the Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize 2025 will be announced on March 3.