Masud Husain's Our Brains, Our Selves wins the Royal Society science book prize
Neurologist Masud Husain's debut, Our Brains, Our Selves, won the £25,000 Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize for 2025.
The neurologist Masud Husain has won the 2025 Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize for Our Brains, Our Selves: What a Neurologist's Patients Taught Him About the Brain, published by Canongate. The winner was announced at the Royal Society in London on 1 October 2025. It is Husain's first book.
The book draws on the cases of seven patients to show how neurological disorders can alter a person's sense of identity. Husain receives £25,000, and each of the other shortlisted authors £2,500.
The panel was chaired by Dr Sandra Knapp, a botanist at the Natural History Museum. The other judges were Val McDermid, Nick Mohammed, Amy Bonsor, Roma Agrawal and Jacob Aron.
Case-based writing about the brain has a long history, and it is not easy to add to it. That a first book by a working clinician should take the prize suggests there is still room for specialists who can write for a general reader, provided they treat their patients as people rather than as illustrations. Canongate also published the 2025 Wainwright book of the year, which makes it a good year for the Edinburgh publisher's non-fiction list.
Source: Royal Society: Our Brains, Our Selves wins the 2025 prize.