Wainwright Prize
The Wainwright Prize is a literary prize awarded annually for the best work of general outdoors, nature and UK-based travel writing. In 2020 it was split into the Wainwright Prize for UK nature writing and the Wainwright Prize for writing on global conservation, with separate longlists and judging panels. It is restricted to books published in the UK.[1] For three years from 2022 the prizes will be sponsored by Kendal paper-makers James Cropper plc and known as the James Cropper Wainwright Prizes.[2] A prize for writing for children was introduced in 2022, the three prizes being the James Cropper Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing, the James Cropper Wainwright Prize for Writing on Conservation and the James Cropper Wainwright Prize for Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation.[3]
The prize celebrates the legacy of British guidebook writer Alfred Wainwright. The prize was established by Frances Lincoln Publishers and The Wainwright Society, in association with the National Trust. It was originally sponsored by Thwaites Brewery, who produced a beer called Wainwright Ale[4] and was later sponsored by Marston's Brewery, who took over Thwaites' production of Wainwright Golden Beer, and sometimes referred to as The Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize.[5] In 2020 the prize was no longer sponsored, but was supported by an anonymous benefactor and was "in association with the National Trust".[1] In 2021 the Kendal papermakers James Cropper plc became the prize's "headline sponsors" in a three-year agreement.[6] In 2024 it was announced that the prize would be seeking new sponsorship.[7]
The prize was first awarded in 2014 to Hugh Thomson for his The Green Road into the Trees: A Walk through England. The winner received a cheque for £5,000. With the introduction of two prizes in 2020 the prize money was shared between the two winners,[1] and in 2022 it was increased to £7,500 to be shared between the three winners.[3]
Winners and shortlisted titles
In the following table, the years correspond to the date of the ceremony, rather than when the book was first published. Entries with a blue background and an asterisk (*) next to the writer's name have won the award; those with a pale background are the other nominees on the shortlist.
* Winners
| Year | Author | Book | Publisher | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014[8] | Hugh Thomson * | The Green Road Into The Trees: A Walk through England | ||
| Simon Armitage | Walking Home | |||
| Patrick Barkham | Badgerlands | |||
| Charlotte Higgins | Under Another Sky | |||
| Robert Macfarlane | The Old Ways | |||
| Esther Woolfson | Field Notes from a Hidden City | |||
| 2015[9] | John Lewis-Stempel * | Meadowland[10] | ||
| Richard Askwith | Running Free: A Runner's Journey Back to Nature | |||
| William Atkins | The Moor | |||
| Mark Cocker | Claxton: Field Notes from a Small Planet | |||
| Helen Macdonald | H is for Hawk | |||
| Philip Marsden | Rising Ground: A Search for the Spirit of Place | |||
| 2016[11] | Amy Liptrot * | The Outrun[12] | ||
| Rob Cowen | Common Ground | |||
| Robert Macfarlane | Landmarks | |||
| Michael McCarthy | The Moth Snowstorm | |||
| Katharine Norbury | The Fish Ladder | |||
| James Rebanks | The Shepherd's Life | |||
| 2017[13] | John Lewis-Stempel * | Where Poppies Blow | ||
| Madeleine Bunting | Love of Country | |||
| Simon Cooper | The Otters' Tale | |||
| John Lewis-Stempel | The Running Hare | |||
| Stephen Moss | Wild Kingdom | |||
| Christopher Somerville | The January Man | |||
| Clover Stroud | The Wild Other | |||
| 2018[14] | Adam Nicolson * | The Seabird's Cry | ||
| Neil Ansell | The Last Wilderness | |||
| Alys Fowler | Hidden Nature | |||
| John Grindrod | Outskirts | |||
| John Lister-Kaye | The Dun Cow Rib | |||
| Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris | The Lost Words | |||
| Raynor Winn | The Salt Path | |||
| 2019[15] | Robert Macfarlane * | Underland | ||
| Julia Blackburn | Time Song | |||
| Juliet Blaxland | The Easternmost House | |||
| Mark Cocker | Our Place | |||
| Kate Humble | Thinking on My Feet | |||
| Isabella Tree | Wilding | |||
| Luke Turner | Out of the Woods | |||
| 2020: Global Cons'n [16] |
Benedict Macdonald * | Rebirding: Restoring Britain's Wildlife | ||
| Chris Goodall | What We Need to Do Now | |||
| Julian Hoffman | Irreplaceable | |||
| Helen Pilcher | Life Changing: How Humans are Altering Life on Earth | |||
| Jeremy Purseglove | Working With Nature | |||
| Carolyn Steel | Sitopia: How Food Can Save the World | |||
| 2020: UK Nature Writing [17] |
Dara McAnulty * | Diary of a Young Naturalist | ||
| Lamorna Ash | Dark, Salt, Clear: Life in a Cornish Fishing Town | |||
| David Gange | The Frayed Atlantic Edge | |||
| Patrick Laurie | Native: Life in a Vanishing Landscape | |||
| Mike Parker | On the Red Hill | |||
| Jini Reddy | Wanderland: A Search for Magic in the Landscape | |||
| Brigit Strawbridge Howard | Dancing with Bees: A Journey Back to Nature | |||
| 2021: Global Cons'n [18] |
Merlin Sheldrake * | Entangled Life | ||
| David Attenborough | A Life on Our Planet | |||
| Cal Flyn | Islands of Abandonment | |||
| Rebecca Giggs | Fathoms: The World in the Whale | |||
| Dieter Helm | Net Zero: How We Stop Causing Climate Change | |||
| Elizabeth Kolbert | Under a White Sky | |||
| 2021: UK Nature Writing [18] |
James Rebanks * | English Pastoral: An Inheritance | ||
| Charles Foster | The Screaming Sky | |||
| Charlie Gilmour | Featherhood | |||
| Marc Hamer | Seed to Dust | |||
| Kerri ní Dochartaigh | Thin Places | |||
| Anita Sethi | I belong here | |||
| Raynor Winn | The Wild Silence | |||
| 2022: Nature Writing [3][19] |
James Aldred * | Goshawk Summer: A New Forest Season Unlike Any Other | Elliott & Thompson | |
| Nicola Chester | On Gallows Down: Place, Protest and Belonging | Chelsea Green | ||
| Matthew Green | Shadowlands: A Journey Through Lost Britain | Faber & Faber | ||
| Amy Liptrot | The Instant | Canongate | ||
| Anna Fleming | Time on Rock: A Climber’s Route into the Mountains | Canongate | ||
| Thomas Halliday | Otherlands: A World in the Making | Allen Lane | ||
| 2022: Writing on Conservation [3][19] |
Dan Saladino * | Eating to Extinction: The World’s Rarest Foods and Why We Need to Save Them | Jonathan Cape | |
| Alice Bell | Our Biggest Experiment: A History of the Climate Crisis | Bloomsbury Sigma | ||
| Dave Goulson | Silent Earth: Averting the Insect Apocalypse | Vintage | ||
| Oliver Milman | The Insect Crisis: The Fall of the Tiny Empires That Run the World | Atlantic Books | ||
| George Monbiot | Regenesis: Feeding the World Without Devouring the Planet | Allen Lane | ||
| Ben Rawlance | The Treeline: The Last Forest and the Future of Life on Earth | Jonathan Cape | ||
| Lee Schofield | Wild Fell: Fighting for Nature on a Lake District Hill Farm | Doubleday | ||
| 2022:Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation[3][19] |
Rob Sears * | The Biggest Footprint: Eight billion Humans. One Clumsy Giant | Canongate | illustrated by Tom Sears |
| Katya Balen | October, October | Bloomsbury Children's Books | ||
| Nicola Davies | One World: 24 Hours on Planet Earth | Walker Books | ||
| Kiran Millwood Hargrave | Julia and the Shark | Orion Children’s Books | illustrated by Tom de Freston | |
| Melissa Harrison | By Rowan and Yew | Chicken House | illustrated by Angela Harding | |
| Ben Lerwill | Around the World in 80 Trees | Welbeck | illustrated by Kaja Kajfež | |
| Dara McAnulty | Wild Child: A Journey Through Nature | Macmillan Children's Books | illustrated by Barry Falls | |
| 2023: Nature Writing [20][21] |
Amy-Jane Beer * | The Flow: Rivers, Water and Wildness | Bloomsbury | |
| Elizabeth-Jane Burnett | Twelve Words for Moss | Allen Lane | ||
| Stephen Moss | Ten Birds That Changed the World | Faber | ||
| Dorthe Nors | A Line in the World: A Year on the North Sea Coast | Pushkin | translated by Caroline Waight | |
| Katherine Rundell | The Golden Mole: And Other Living Treasure | Faber | illustrated by Talya Baldwin | |
| Amanda Thomson | Belonging: Natural Histories of Place, Identity and Home | Canongate | ||
| 2023: Writing on Conservation [20][21] |
Guy Shrubsole * | The Lost Rainforests of Britain | William Collins | |
| Keggie Carew | Beastly: A New History of Animals and Us | Canongate | ||
| Charles Clover | Rewilding the Sea: How to Save Our Oceans | Ebury | ||
| Sarah Langford | Rooted: How Regenerative Farming Can Change the World | Viking | ||
| Fiona Mathews and Tim Kendall | Black Ops and Beaver Bombing: Adventures with Britain’s Wild Mammals | Oneworld | ||
| Gaia Vince | Nomad Century: How to Survive the Climate Upheaval | Allen Lane | ||
| 2023:Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation[20][21] |
Kiran Millwood Hargrave * | Leila and the Blue Fox | Chicken House | illustrated by Tom de Freston |
| Nicola Davies | Protecting the Planet: The Season of Giraffes | Walker Books | illustrated by Emily Sutton | |
| Olaf Falafel | Blobfish | Walker Books | ||
| M. G. Leonard | Spark | Walker Books | ||
| Dara McAnulty | A Wild Child’s Book of Birds | MacmillanChildren’s Books | illustrated by Barry Falls | |
| Anna Wilson | Grandpa and the Kingfisher | Nosy Crow | illustrated by Sarah Massini | |
| 2024: Nature Writing[22][23] |
Michael Malay * | Late Light: The Secret Wonders of a Disappearing World | Manila Press, Bonnier Books | |
| Marchelle Farrell | Uprooting: From the Caribbean to the Countryside | Canongate | ||
| Kat Hill | Bothy: In Search of Simple Shelter | William Collins | ||
| Alastair Humphreys | Local: A Search for Nearby Nature and Wildness | Faber | ||
| Jessica J. Lee | Dispersals: On Plants, Borders and Belonging | Hamish Hamilton | ||
| Olivia Laing | The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise | Picador | ||
| Rebecca Smith | Rural: The Lives of the Working Class Countryside | William Collins | ||
| 2024: Writing on Conservation [22][23] |
Helen Czerski * | Blue Machine: How the Ocean Shapes Our World | Torva, Transworld | |
| Oliver Franklin-Wallis | Wasteland: The Dirty Truth About What We Throw Away, Where It Goes, and Why It Matters | Simon & Schuster | ||
| Chantal Lyons | Groundbreakers: The Return of Britain’s Wild Boar | Bloomsbury Wildlife | ||
| Tori Tsui | It’s Not Just You: How to Navigate Eco-Anxiety and the Climate Crisis | Simon & Schuster, Gallery Books | ||
| John Vaillant | Fire Weather: A True Story From a Hotter World | Sceptre, Hodder & Stoughton | ||
| Sophie Yeo | Nature’s Ghosts: The World We Lost and How to Bring it Back | HarperNorth/ HarperCollins | ||
| 2024: Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation[22][23] |
Katya Balen * | Foxlight | Bloomsbury Children's | |
| Giselle Clarkson | The Observologist | Gecko Press | ||
| Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin | Global | Hodder Children's Books | illustrated by Giovanni Rigano | |
| Nicola Davies | Skrimsli | Firefly Press | illustrated by Jackie Morris | |
| David Lindo | Fly: A Child’s Guide to Birds and Where to Spot Them | Magic Cat Publishing | illustrated by Sara Boccaccini Meadows | |
| Kiran Millwood Hargrave | Geomancer: In The Shadow of the Wolf Queen | Orion Children's Books | ||
| Katherine Rundell | Impossible Creatures | Bloomsbury Children's | ||
| Isabella Tree | Wilding: How to Bring Wildlife Back | Macmillan Children's Books | illustrated by Angela Harding |
References
- ^ a b c "Submissions for the 2020 Awards". The Wainwright Prize. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
- ^ "Wainwright Prize Sponsorship". James Cropper. Retrieved 27 June 2022.
- ^ a b c d e "James Cropper Wainwright Prize 2022 shortlists announced". Wainwright Prize. James Cropper plc. Retrieved 29 July 2022.
- ^ "The prize celebrates the legacy of British nature writer Alfred Wainwright". Retrieved 14 February 2015.
- ^ "Home page". The Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize. Archived from the original on 26 February 2019. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
- ^ "Sponsors & Partners". Wainwright Prize. Archived from the original on 5 August 2021. Retrieved 8 September 2021.
- ^ Kemp-Habib, Alice (2 April 2024). "Wainwright Prize to part ways with headline sponsor". The Bookseller. Retrieved 29 July 2024.
- ^ "Shortlist 2014". The Wainwright Prize. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
- ^ "Shortlist 2015". The Wainwright Prize. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
- ^ "New Literary Prize for Nature & Travel Writing about Britain Launched". thebookseller.com. Retrieved 10 May 2015.
- ^ "Shortlist 2016". The Wainwright Prize. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
- ^ "The Outrun by Amy Liptrot wins The Wainwright Golden Beer Prize 2016". wainwrightprize.com. Retrieved 5 August 2016.
- ^ "Shortlist 2017". The Wainwright Prize. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
- ^ "Shortlist 2018". The Wainwright Prize. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
- ^ "Shortlist 2019". The Wainwright Prize. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
- ^ "2020 Writing on Global Conservation shortlist". The Wainwright Prize. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
- ^ "2020 UK Nature Writing shortlist". The Wainwright Prize. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
- ^ a b Flood, Alison (7 September 2021). "Wainwright prize for nature writing goes to James Rebanks for English Pastoral". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 September 2021.
- ^ a b c "The James Cropper Wainwright Prize Winners 2022". Wainwright Prize. Retrieved 7 September 2022.
- ^ a b c "10th Anniversary Shortlist for the James Cropper Wainwright Prize Announced". Wainwright Prize. James Cropper plc. 10 August 2023. Retrieved 16 August 2023.
- ^ a b c "10th James Cropper Wainwright Prize Announces Winner as Wild Places, Remarkable Habitats and Passionate Advocacy for our Planer are Celebrated". Wainwright Prize. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
- ^ a b c "The 2024 Wainwright Prize Shortlists Announcement". Wainwright Prize. 15 August 2024. Retrieved 20 August 2024.
- ^ a b c "2024 WINNERS ANNOUNCED". Wainwright Prize. 12 September 2024. Retrieved 27 September 2024.