On January 6, the Charles Taylor Prize jury announced that Mr. Cook’s historical account of the First World War entitled Shock Troops: Canadians Fighting the Great War, 1917-18, Volume II was up for contention in the literary non-fiction category.

Mr. Cook, who graduated from Trent in 1990 with a history degree, is the First World War historian at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa. Volume I of the series, released in 2007, won the last Ottawa Book Award for Non-Fiction and the J.W. Dafoe Book Prize, another of the country's top non-fiction awards.

In describing the great quality of this book, the jury wrote “"with tremendous detail and almost unstoppable narrative momentum, this book gives a harrowing account of a pivotal moment in world history that would transform Canada's idea of itself."

The winner will be announced February 9 in Toronto.

The prize honours the late Charles Taylor, a prominent essayist and author. It is awarded to the author whose book best combines a superb command of the English language, an elegance of style, and a subtlety of thought and perception.