The Round Table is pleased to announce that the winner of the Peter Lyon Prize for 2025 is Martin Plaut, for his article, ‘Widening the reparations debate’, published in The Round Table, volume 114, issue 3 (June 2025).
Martin is a senior research fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London, and at King’s College London. Born and brought up in Cape Town, he lived with descendants of slaves brought to South Africa mostly by the Dutch East India Company. They were a powerful influence on him. He graduated from the Universities of Cape Town, the Witwatersrand, and Warwick, then worked as Africa and Middle East Secretary for the Labour Party, advising parliamentarians and helping shape policy, before joining the BBC. For 27 years he worked mostly on Africa, retiring as Africa Editor, BBC World Service News. Interacting with African colleagues was inspiring and he learned greatly from their expertise. He has advised the British and American governments, as well as the European Union. Since retiring in 2013 he has written ten books, including Understanding Eritrea (2017), Understanding South Africa (2019), and Unbroken Chains: A 5,000 Year History of African Enslavement (2025).
About the Peter Lyon Prize
This is an annual prize by Routledge, the publishers of The Round Table, for the best policy-oriented article on a theme of significance for the contemporary Commonwealth published in the journal each calendar year. The prize, which carries a value of £1000 Sterling, is awarded each year to the author of the best policy-relevant article published in the previous year. It is awarded at the discretion of the editor, with advice both from the publishers and from the journal’s editorial and international advisory boards. The editor’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entertained on the subject.
The prize has been instituted in memory of Peter Lyon (1934-2010), who was Reader in International Relations at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London, and Editor of The Round Table from 1983 to 2004. Widely acknowledged as one of the leading experts on the Commonwealth, he was keen to bridge the divide between academia and policy-making, and over the period of his editorship he wrote almost 100 editorials and other articles for the journal, commenting on more or less every issue of relevance to the contemporary Commonwealth.
All articles published in the journal which contain a significant policy-oriented element will automatically be considered as entries for the prize.
To submit an article for publication in the journal, please go to The Round Table‘s electronic submission website, https://www.tandfonline.com/
To discuss a proposal for an article for publication in the journal, please contact:
Professor Sue Onslow, Editor, The Round Table
E-mail: editor@commonwealthroundtable.
