Henry Mance

Henry Mance’s deeply-researched features cut through the noise on the issues that really mattered. They delivered authoritative narratives that readers wanted to spend time with and to keep discussing afterwards.

Mance’s magazine article on GB News gave an unprecedented view into Britain’s upstart news channel. Mance negotiated access to the GB News newsroom, spoke to dozens of current and former staff, and watched hours of programming. His sharp prose and eye for detail kept readers gripped, with the online article ranking among the highest for time spent. His ability to tease the best from his interviewees provided several punchy news lines, including on Andrew Neil’s use of a private jet.

As GB News shook up British politics, Mance captured how far the broadcaster had come from its original vision. The article was free-spirited, long-form reporting and writing at its best. It fairly captured both GB News’s appeal and its shortcomings in a year where its brand of radical conservatism marked western politics.

As excitement and fear about artificial intelligence took hold in early 2024, Mance went against the grain – telling the story of those sceptical about the technology's ultimate abilities. His FT Weekend essay vividly illustrated the unknowns about AI and the lack of inevitability about the future. It ranked among the FT’s most read articles online, and proved prescient in the months afterwards, as the limitations of some AI software became clear.

Mance’s look at England’s criminal courts took one of the most glaring public services failures of 2024, and exposed it with a rare mix of outrage and nuance. Observing hours of court proceedings at Snaresbrook, and reporting with senior criminal justice figures, allowed Mance to zoom in on details that even specialist journalists have omitted – down to Serco’s shortage of drivers for 12-seater prisoner vans. The article left no doubt about the severity of the problems and the lack of easy solutions. Criminal lawyers, including the Secret Barrister, praised its accuracy.

Together with his other work this year on subjects from the environmental impact of cruise ships to the funding crisis in English opera, these features illustrate Mance’s range. His writing is as assured with statistics as with humour. He has consistently seen the terrain from multiple perspectives, while guiding the reader clearly through.