A biography of John Aubrey by the Caius history and politics Fellow Ruth Scurr has been shortlisted for the prestigious 2015 Costa Biography Award.

John Aubrey: My Own Life, published earlier this year to enthralled reviews, is an invented journal - a diary drawn from the words of Aubrey, a seventeenth century antiquary and biographer.

Filled from an early age with a deep love of an England he saw slipping away, Aubrey devoted himself to preserving for posterity what remained of it, in books, monuments and life stories. He travelled for weeks on horseback touring derelict abbeys, recording details of monuments and amassing huge reference collections of English place names, inscriptions, architectural features and samples of handwriting from across six centuries (which helped him in the dating of manuscripts). Even when exhausted and bankrupt, he felt he had to keep going: “This searching after antiquities is a wearisome business, yet nobody else will do it.”

His unpublished, chaotic yet brilliant "Brief Lives" would redefine the art of biography, yet he died fearing his name and achievements would be forgotten.

The Costa judges loved this book, saying: “We were all beguiled and charmed by this hugely original take on the life of one of the 17th century’s most engaging chroniclers.”

The Guardian's review was similarly enthusiastic, praising the unusual "invented diary" technique: "We are immersed in Aubrey’s world, listening to his voice, learning from his wide sympathies, worrying with him, cringing for him, wanting terribly to make him get on and publish his work before someone steals it. Scurr’s judgment and scholarship in constructing Aubrey’s own account of events are so flawless that she allows us almost to forget that she is there."

Good luck to Ruth for the final selection.The award's winners in their categories will be announced on Monday, January 4. The overall winner of the 2015 Costa Book of the Year will be revealed on Tuesday, January 26.