Vintage Publishing have 3 authors on the longlist for the Samuel Johnson Prize 2012: Salman Rushdie (Joseph Anton, Jonathan Cape), Wade Davis (Into the Silence, Bodley Head) and Ray Monk (Inside the Centre: The Life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Jonathan Cape).

The prize aims to highlight original, diverse and thought-provoking books which bring non-fiction subjects to a wide audience. It covers areas from current affairs to sport, history, travel and the arts.

This year's judges are chaired by MP David Willetts, who is the Minister for Universities and Science. Also on the judging panel are the Guardian's non-fiction editor Paul Laity, editor of Prospect magazine Bronwen Maddox, writer and biographer Patrick French and philosopher, poet, novelist and cultural critic Professor Raymond Tallis.

Below is this year's longlist in full:

• Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo
• One on One by Craig Brown
• Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest by Wade Davis
• The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin by Masha Gessen
• Feathers by Thor Hansen
• Thinking Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman
• The Old Ways by Robert MacFarlane
• Inside the Centre: The Life of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Ray Monk
• Grand Pursuit: The Story of Economic Genius by Sylvia Nasar
• Winter King by Thomas Penn
• The Better Angels of our Nature by Steven Pinker
• The Spanish Holocaust by Paul Preston
• Strindberg A Life by Sue Prideaux
• Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie

The shortlist will be announced on 2nd October and the winner on 12 November.