| Wainwright Prize | |
|---|---|
| Awarded for | Writing on nature, conservation, and the environment |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| First award | 2014 |
| Website | wainwrightprize |
The Wainwright Prize is a literary prize awarded annually for the best works of nature, conservation, and environmental writing. Beginning in 2025 there were six categories: Nature Writing, Conservation Writing, Illustrative Books, Children's Fiction, Children's Non-Fiction, and Children's Picture Books. Each has separate longlists and judging panels. Category winners become eligible to win the overall prizes, the Wainwright Prize Book of the Year and the Wainwright Children's Prize Book of the Year. Nominations are restricted to books published in the UK. [1]
The prize celebrates the legacy of British guidebook writer Alfred Wainwright. It was established in 2013 by Frances Lincoln Publishers and The Wainwright Society, in association with the National Trust. Originally the prize was sponsored by Thwaites Brewery, who produced a beer called Wainwright Ale [2] and was later sponsored by Marston's Brewery, who took over Thwaites' production of Wainwright Golden Beer, and thus the prize was sometimes referred to as The Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize. [3]
In 2020 the prize was no longer sponsored, but was supported by an anonymous benefactor and was "in association with the National Trust". [1] Also in 2020 the prize 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. In 2021 the Kendal papermakers James Cropper plc became the prize's "headline sponsors" in a three-year agreement. [4] From 2022 until 2024, the prizes were known as the James Cropper Wainwright Prizes. [5] A prize for writing for children was introduced in 2022, with the three prizes newly titled 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. [6]
In 2024 it was announced that the prize would be seeking new sponsorship. [7] As of July 2025 [update] the prize's partners were: the RSPB, the Wainwright Society, The Wildlife Trusts, the National Trust, Frances Lincoln, World Book Day, National Geographic Kids, and marketing company [8] Agile. [9]
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. [6] With the prize having been restructured in 2025, the two overall winners received £2,500, while each other category winner received £500, for a total of £7,000 prize money. [10]
In the following tables, 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 | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Hugh Thomson * | The Green Road into the Trees: A Walk Through England | Windmill | [11] |
| Simon Armitage | Walking Home | Faber & Faber | [12] | |
| Patrick Barkham | Badgerlands | Granta | ||
| Charlotte Higgins | Under Another Sky | Vintage | ||
| Robert Macfarlane | The Old Ways | Penguin | ||
| Esther Woolfson | Field Notes from a Hidden City | Granta | ||
| 2015 | John Lewis-Stempel * | Meadowland | Penguin | [13] |
| Richard Askwith | Running Free: A Runner's Journey Back to Nature | Yellow Jersey | [14] | |
| William Atkins | The Moor | Faber & Faber | ||
| Mark Cocker | Claxton: Field Notes from a Small Planet | Vintage | ||
| Helen Macdonald | H is for Hawk | Vintage | ||
| Philip Marsden | Rising Ground: A Search for the Spirit of Place | Granta | ||
| 2016 | Amy Liptrot * | The Outrun | Canongate | [15] |
| Rob Cowen | Common Ground | Windmill | [16] | |
| Robert Macfarlane | Landmarks | Penguin | ||
| Michael McCarthy | The Moth Snowstorm | John Murray Press | ||
| Katharine Norbury | The Fish Ladder | Bloomsbury | ||
| James Rebanks | The Shepherd's Life | Penguin | ||
| 2017 | John Lewis-Stempel * | Where Poppies Blow | Weidenfeld and Nicolson | [17] |
| Madeleine Bunting | Love of Country | Granta | [18] | |
| Simon Cooper | The Otters' Tale | William Collins | ||
| John Lewis-Stempel | The Running Hare | Black Swan | ||
| Stephen Moss | Wild Kingdom | Vintage | ||
| Christopher Somerville | The January Man (book) | Black Swan | ||
| Clover Stroud | The Wild Other | Hodder & Stoughton | ||
| 2018 | Adam Nicolson * | The Seabird's Cry | William Collins | [19] |
| Neil Ansell | The Last Wilderness | Headline | [20] | |
| Alys Fowler | Hidden Nature | Hodder & Stoughton | ||
| John Grindrod | Outskirts | Hodder & Stoughton | ||
| John Lister-Kaye | The Dun Cow Rib | Canongate | ||
| Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris | The Lost Words | Hamish Hamilton | ||
| Raynor Winn | The Salt Path | Penguin | ||
| 2019 | Robert Macfarlane * | Underland | Hamish Hamilton | [21] |
| Julia Blackburn | Time Song | Vintage | [22] | |
| Juliet Blaxland | The Easternmost House | Sandstone | ||
| Mark Cocker | Our Place | Vintage | ||
| Kate Humble | Thinking on My Feet | Octopus Books | ||
| Isabella Tree | Wilding | Picador | ||
| Luke Turner | Out of the Woods | Weidenfeld and Nicolson |
| Year | Author | Book | Publisher | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020: Global Conservation | Benedict Macdonald * | Rebirding: Restoring Britain's Wildlife | Pelagic Publishing | [23] |
| Chris Goodall | What We Need to Do Now | Profile Books | [24] | |
| Julian Hoffman | Irreplaceable | Penguin | ||
| Helen Pilcher | Life Changing: How Humans Are Altering Life on Earth | Bloomsbury Sigma | ||
| Jeremy Purseglove | Working With Nature | Profile Books | ||
| Carolyn Steel | Sitopia: How Food Can Save the World | Vintage | ||
| 2020: UK Nature Writing | Dara McAnulty * | Diary of a Young Naturalist | Ebury Press | [23] |
| Lamorna Ash | Dark, Salt, Clear: Life in a Cornish Fishing Town | Bloomsbury | [25] | |
| David Gange | The Frayed Atlantic Edge | William Collins | ||
| Patrick Laurie | Native: Life in a Vanishing Landscape | Birlinn General | ||
| Mike Parker | On the Red Hill | Windmill | ||
| Jini Reddy | Wanderland: A Search for Magic in the Landscape | Bloomsbury Wildlife | ||
| Brigit Strawbridge Howard | Dancing with Bees: A Journey Back to Nature | Chelsea Green | ||
| 2021: Global Conservation | Merlin Sheldrake * | Entangled Life | Penguin Random House | [26] |
| David Attenborough | A Life on Our Planet | Ebury Press | [27] | |
| Cal Flyn | Islands of Abandonment | William Collins | ||
| Rebecca Giggs | Fathoms: The World in the Whale | Scribe Publications | ||
| Dieter Helm | Net Zero: How We Stop Causing Climate Change | William Collins | ||
| Elizabeth Kolbert | Under a White Sky | Vintage | ||
| 2021: UK Nature Writing | James Rebanks * | English Pastoral: An Inheritance | Penguin | [26] |
| Charles Foster | The Screaming Sky | Little Toller Books | [27] | |
| Charlie Gilmour | Featherhood | Orion | ||
| Marc Hamer | Seed to Dust | Vintage | ||
| Kerri ní Dochartaigh | Thin Places | Canongate | ||
| Anita Sethi | I Belong Here | Bloomsbury Wildlife | ||
| Raynor Winn | The Wild Silence | Penguin |
| Year | Author | Book | Publisher | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022: Nature Writing | James Aldred * | Goshawk Summer: A New Forest Season Unlike Any Other | Elliott & Thompson | [28] |
| Nicola Chester | On Gallows Down: Place, Protest and Belonging | Chelsea Green | [6] | |
| 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 | Dan Saladino * | Eating to Extinction: The World's Rarest Foods and Why We Need to Save Them | Jonathan Cape | [28] |
| Alice Bell | Our Biggest Experiment: A History of the Climate Crisis | Bloomsbury Sigma | [6] | |
| 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 Rawlence | 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 | Rob Sears Illustrated by Tom Sears * | The Biggest Footprint: Eight Billion Humans. One Clumsy Giant | Canongate | [28] |
| Katya Balen | October, October | Bloomsbury Children's Books | [6] | |
| Nicola Davies Illustrated by Jenni Desmond | One World: 24 Hours on Planet Earth | Walker Books | ||
| Kiran Millwood Hargrave Illustrated by Tom de Freston | Julia and the Shark | Orion Children's Books | ||
| Melissa Harrison Illustrated by Angela Harding | By Rowan and Yew | Chicken House | ||
| Ben Lerwill Illustrated by Kaja Kajfež | Around the World in 80 Trees | Welbeck | ||
| Dara McAnulty Illustrated by Barry Falls | Wild Child: A Journey Through Nature | Macmillan Children's Books | ||
| 2023: Nature Writing | Amy-Jane Beer * | The Flow: Rivers, Water and Wildness | Bloomsbury | [29] |
| Elizabeth-Jane Burnett | Twelve Words for Moss | Allen Lane | [30] | |
| Stephen Moss | Ten Birds That Changed the World | Faber | ||
| Dorthe Nors Translated by Caroline Waight | A Line in the World: A Year on the North Sea Coast | Pushkin | ||
| Katherine Rundell Illustrated by Talya Baldwin | The Golden Mole: And Other Living Treasure | Faber | ||
| Amanda Thomson | Belonging: Natural Histories of Place, Identity and Home | Canongate | ||
| 2023: Writing on Conservation | Guy Shrubsole * | The Lost Rainforests of Britain | William Collins | [29] |
| Keggie Carew | Beastly: A New History of Animals and Us | Canongate | [30] | |
| 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 | Kiran Millwood Hargrave Illustrated by Tom de Freston * | Leila and the Blue Fox | Chicken House | [29] |
| Nicola Davies Illustrated by Emily Sutton | Protecting the Planet: The Season of Giraffes | Walker Books | [30] | |
| Olaf Falafel | Blobfish | Walker Books | ||
| M. G. Leonard | Spark | Walker Books | ||
| Dara McAnulty Illustrated by Barry Falls | A Wild Child's Book of Birds | Macmillan Children's Books | ||
| Anna Wilson Illustrated by Sarah Massini | Grandpa and the Kingfisher | Nosy Crow | ||
| 2024: Nature Writing | Michael Malay * | Late Light: The Secret Wonders of a Disappearing World | Manila Press, Bonnier Books | [31] |
| Marchelle Farrell | Uprooting: From the Caribbean to the Countryside | Canongate | [32] | |
| 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 | Helen Czerski * | Blue Machine: How the Ocean Shapes Our World | Torva, Transworld | [31] |
| Oliver Franklin-Wallis | Wasteland: The Dirty Truth About What We Throw Away, Where It Goes, and Why It Matters | Simon & Schuster | [32] | |
| 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 | Katya Balen * | Foxlight | Bloomsbury Children's | [31] |
| Giselle Clarkson | The Observologist | Gecko Press | [32] | |
| Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin Illustrated by Giovanni Rigano | Global | Hodder Children's Books | ||
| Nicola Davies Illustrated by Jackie Morris | Skrimsli | Firefly Press | ||
| David Lindo Illustrated by Sara Boccaccini Meadows | Fly: A Child's Guide to Birds and Where to Spot Them | Magic Cat Publishing | ||
| Kiran Millwood Hargrave | Geomancer: In the Shadow of the Wolf Queen | Orion Children's Books | ||
| Katherine Rundell | Impossible Creatures | Bloomsbury Children's | ||
| Isabella Tree Illustrated by Angela Harding | Wilding: How to Bring Wildlife Back | Macmillan Children's Books |
In 2025, the Wainwright Prize was restructured to award books across six categories, each falling under one of two overall Prizes: the Wainwright Prize Book of the Year and the Wainwright Children's Prize Book of the Year. Only winners in individual categories are eligible to win the overall Prizes. In the following table, a blue background indicates a category winner, a green background indicates an overall winner and a pale background indicates a shortlisted nominee.
Submissions for the 2025 prizes closed on 6 March 2025. The longlists were announced in July 2025; the shortlists were announced on 5 August [10] [33] and the winners were announced on 10 September. [34]
* Category winners ‡ Overall winners
| Year | Author | Book | Publisher | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025: Nature Writing | Chloe Dalton ‡ | Raising Hare | Canongate | [35] |
| Jason Allen-Paisant | The Possibility of Tenderness | Hutchinson Heinemann | [36] | |
| Yuvan Aves | Intertidal | Bonnier Books | ||
| Merlin Hanbury-Tenison | Our Oaken Bones | Witness Books | ||
| Paul Lamb | Of Thorn & Briar | Simon & Schuster | ||
| Richard Mabey | The Accidental Garden | Profile Books | ||
| Callum Robinson | Ingrained | Penguin | ||
| 2025: Conservation Writing | Guy Shrubsole * | The Lie of the Land | William Collins | [35] |
| David Farrier | Nature's Genius | Canongate | [36] | |
| Robert Macfarlane | Is a River Alive? | Hamish Hamilton | ||
| Alice Mah | Red Pockets | Allen Lane | ||
| Friederike Otto Translared by Sarah Pybus | Climate Injustice | Greystone Books | ||
| Sophy Roberts | A Training School for Elephants | Doubleday | ||
| Helen Scales | What the Wild Sea Can Be | Atlantic Books | ||
| 2025: Illustrative Books | George Steinmetz , Joel K. Bourne Jr. and Michael Pollan * | Feed the Planet | Abrams | [35] |
| John McEwen Illustrated by Carry Akroyd | Swoop Sing Perch Paddle | Bloomsbury Wildlife | [36] | |
| Melissa Harrison Illustrated by Amanda Dilworth | Homecoming | Weidenfeld & Nicolson | ||
| Peter Kuper | Insectopolis | W. W. Norton & Company | ||
| Quintin Lake | The Perimeter | Hutchinson Heinemann, Penguin | ||
| Richard Shimell | Trees in Winter | Sphere | ||
| 2025: The Children's Wainwright Prize for Fiction | Brogen Murphy * | Wildlands | Puffin Books | [35] |
| Katya Balen | Ghostlines | Bloomsbury Children's | [37] | |
| Hannah Gold Illustrated by Levi Pinfold | Turtle Moon | HarperCollins | ||
| Julia Green Illustrated by Pam Smy | Ettie and the Midnight Pool | David Fickling Books | ||
| Kengo Kurimoto | Wildful | Pushkin Children’s Books | ||
| Lui Sit Illustrated by David Dean | Land of the Last Wildcat | Macmillan Children’s Books | ||
| 2025: The Children's Wainwright Prize for Non-Fiction | Ben Hoare Illustrated by Nina Chakrabarti * | University of Cambridge: Think Big: Secrets of Bees | Nosy Crow | [35] |
| Moira Butterfield Illustrated by Jesús Verona | National Trust: Look What I Found by the River | Nosy Crow | [37] | |
| Jules Howard Illustrated by Gavin Scott | MEGA | Nosy Crow | ||
| Gavin Pretor-Pinney Illustrated by William Grill | Cloudspotting for Beginners | Particular Books | ||
| Sharon Wismer Illustrated by Terri Po | Wildlife in the Balances | Flying Eye Books | ||
| Hamza Yassin Illustrated by Louise Forshaw | Hamza’s Wild World | Macmillan Children’s Books | ||
| 2025: The Children's Wainwright Prize for Picture Books | Lanisha Butterfield Illustrated by Hoang Giang ‡ | Flower Block | Puffin Books | [35] |
| Emily Gravett | Bothered By Bugs | Too Hoots | [37] | |
| Stephen Hogtun | HERD | Bloomsbury Children’s Books | ||
| Robert Macfarlane and Johnny Flynn Illustrated by Emily Sutton | The World to Come | Magic Cat Publishing | ||
| Isabel Thomas Illustrated by Daniel Egnéus | Frog | Bloomsbury Children's Books | ||
| Benjamin Zephaniah Illustrated by Melissa Castrillon | Leave the Trees, Please | Magic Cat Publishing | ||
| Yuval Zommer | The Wild | Oxford University Press |