Björn Wahlroos, Sampo's chairman of the board, made the selection.
Wahlroos said that Tandefelt’s book was an example of wonderful historical story-telling that also happened to be published on the 200th anniversary of the Porvoo Diet.
A council selected six finalists for the award. However, they were criticised because not one of the candidate books was a memoir and just one was a traditional historical work.
However, Wahlroos said the non-fiction genre covers a wide-range of literature. He added that the council had to compare apples with oranges.
In addition to Tandefelt’s work, Wahlroos said he was especially impressed by Seppo Laurell’s book Valo Merellä (Light on the Sea) and Mikko Ylikangas’s Unileipää, kuolonvettä ja spiidiä. Huumeet Suomessa 1800-1950 (Sleepbread, Deathwater, Speed: Drugs in Finland, 1800-1950).