# 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. 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. 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.
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 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. In 2020 the prize was no longer sponsored, but was supported by an anonymous benefactor and was "in association with the National Trust". In 2021 the Kendal papermakers James Cropper plc became the prize's "headline sponsors" in a three-year agreement. In 2024 it was announced that the prize would be seeking new sponsorship.
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, and in 2022 it was increased to £7,500 to be shared between the three winners.

## 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 | Hugh Thomson * | The Green Road Into The Trees: A Walk through England | | |
| 2014 | Simon Armitage | Walking Home | | |
| 2014 | Patrick Barkham | Badgerlands | | |
| 2014 | Charlotte Higgins | Under Another Sky | | |
| 2014 | Robert Macfarlane | The Old Ways | | |
| 2014 | Esther Woolfson | Field Notes from a Hidden City | | |
| 2015 | John Lewis-Stempel * | Meadowland | | |
| 2015 | Richard Askwith | Running Free: A Runner's Journey Back to Nature | | |
| 2015 | William Atkins | The Moor | | |
| 2015 | Mark Cocker | Claxton: Field Notes from a Small Planet | | |
| 2015 | Helen Macdonald | H is for Hawk | | |
| 2015 | Philip Marsden | Rising Ground: A Search for the Spirit of Place | | |
| 2016 | Amy Liptrot * | The Outrun | | |
| 2016 | Rob Cowen | Common Ground | | |
| 2016 | Robert Macfarlane | Landmarks | | |
| 2016 | Michael McCarthy | The Moth Snowstorm | | |
| 2016 | Katharine Norbury | The Fish Ladder | | |
| 2016 | James Rebanks | The Shepherd's Life | | |
| 2017 | John Lewis-Stempel * | Where Poppies Blow | | |
| 2017 | Madeleine Bunting | Love of Country | | |
| 2017 | Simon Cooper | The Otters' Tale | | |
| 2017 | John Lewis-Stempel | The Running Hare | | |
| 2017 | Stephen Moss | Wild Kingdom | | |
| 2017 | Christopher Somerville | The January Man | | |
| 2017 | Clover Stroud | The Wild Other | | |
| 2018 | Adam Nicolson * | The Seabird's Cry | | |
| 2018 | Neil Ansell | The Last Wilderness | | |
| 2018 | Alys Fowler | Hidden Nature | | |
| 2018 | John Grindrod | Outskirts | | |
| 2018 | John Lister-Kaye | The Dun Cow Rib | | |
| 2018 | Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris | The Lost Words | | |
| 2018 | Raynor Winn | The Salt Path | | |
| 2019 | Robert Macfarlane * | Underland | | |
| 2019 | Julia Blackburn | Time Song | | |
| 2019 | Juliet Blaxland | The Easternmost House | | |
| 2019 | Mark Cocker | Our Place | | |
| 2019 | Kate Humble | Thinking on My Feet | | |
| 2019 | Isabella Tree | Wilding | | |
| 2019 | Luke Turner | Out of the Woods | | |
| 2020: Global Cons'n | Benedict Macdonald * | Rebirding: Restoring Britain's Wildlife | | |
| 2020: Global Cons'n | Chris Goodall | What We Need to Do Now | | |
| 2020: Global Cons'n | Julian Hoffman | Irreplaceable | | |
| 2020: Global Cons'n | Helen Pilcher | Life Changing: How Humans are Altering Life on Earth | | |
| 2020: Global Cons'n | Jeremy Purseglove | Working With Nature | | |
| 2020: Global Cons'n | Carolyn Steel | Sitopia: How Food Can Save the World | | |
| 2020: UK Nature Writing | Dara McAnulty * | Diary of a Young Naturalist | | |
| 2020: UK Nature Writing | Lamorna Ash | Dark, Salt, Clear: Life in a Cornish Fishing Town | | |
| 2020: UK Nature Writing | David Gange | The Frayed Atlantic Edge | | |
| 2020: UK Nature Writing | Patrick Laurie | Native: Life in a Vanishing Landscape | | |
| 2020: UK Nature Writing | Mike Parker | On the Red Hill | | |
| 2020: UK Nature Writing | Jini Reddy | Wanderland: A Search for Magic in the Landscape | | |
| 2020: UK Nature Writing | Brigit Strawbridge Howard | Dancing with Bees: A Journey Back to Nature | | |
| 2021: Global Cons'n | Merlin Sheldrake * | Entangled Life | | |
| 2021: Global Cons'n | David Attenborough | A Life on Our Planet | | |
| 2021: Global Cons'n | Cal Flyn | Islands of Abandonment | | |
| 2021: Global Cons'n | Rebecca Giggs | Fathoms: The World in the Whale | | |
| 2021: Global Cons'n | Dieter Helm | Net Zero: How We Stop Causing Climate Change | | |
| 2021: Global Cons'n | Elizabeth Kolbert | Under a White Sky | | |
| 2021: UK Nature Writing | James Rebanks * | English Pastoral: An Inheritance | | |
| 2021: UK Nature Writing | Charles Foster | The Screaming Sky | | |
| 2021: UK Nature Writing | Charlie Gilmour | Featherhood | | |
| 2021: UK Nature Writing | Marc Hamer | Seed to Dust | | |
| 2021: UK Nature Writing | Kerri ní Dochartaigh | Thin Places | | |
| 2021: UK Nature Writing | Anita Sethi | I belong here | | |
| 2021: UK Nature Writing | Raynor Winn | The Wild Silence | | |
| 2022: Nature Writing | James Aldred * | Goshawk Summer: A New Forest Season Unlike Any Other | Elliott & Thompson | |
| 2022: Nature Writing | Nicola Chester | On Gallows Down: Place, Protest and Belonging | Chelsea Green | |
| 2022: Nature Writing | Matthew Green | Shadowlands: A Journey Through Lost Britain | Faber & Faber | |
| 2022: Nature Writing | Amy Liptrot | The Instant | Canongate | |
| 2022: Nature Writing | Anna Fleming | Time on Rock: A Climber's Route into the Mountains | Canongate | |
| 2022: Nature Writing | 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 | |
| 2022: Writing on Conservation | Alice Bell | Our Biggest Experiment: A History of the Climate Crisis | Bloomsbury Sigma | |
| 2022: Writing on Conservation | Dave Goulson | Silent Earth: Averting the Insect Apocalypse | Vintage | |
| 2022: Writing on Conservation | Oliver Milman | The Insect Crisis: The Fall of the Tiny Empires That Run the World | Atlantic Books | |
| 2022: Writing on Conservation | George Monbiot | Regenesis: Feeding the World Without Devouring the Planet | Allen Lane | |
| 2022: Writing on Conservation | Ben Rawlance | The Treeline: The Last Forest and the Future of Life on Earth | Jonathan Cape | |
| 2022: Writing on Conservation | Lee Schofield | Wild Fell: Fighting for Nature on a Lake District Hill Farm | Doubleday | |
| 2022:Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation | Rob Sears * | The Biggest Footprint: Eight billion Humans. One Clumsy Giant | Canongate | illustrated by Tom Sears |
| 2022:Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation | Katya Balen | October, October | Bloomsbury Children's Books | |
| 2022:Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation | Nicola Davies | One World: 24 Hours on Planet Earth | Walker Books | |
| 2022:Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation | Kiran Millwood Hargrave | Julia and the Shark | Orion Children's Books | illustrated by Tom de Freston |
| 2022:Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation | Melissa Harrison | By Rowan and Yew | Chicken House | illustrated by Angela Harding |
| 2022:Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation | Ben Lerwill | Around the World in 80 Trees | Welbeck | illustrated by Kaja Kajfež |
| 2022:Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation | Dara McAnulty | Wild Child: A Journey Through Nature | Macmillan Children's Books | illustrated by Barry Falls |
| 2023: Nature Writing | Amy-Jane Beer * | The Flow: Rivers, Water and Wildness | Bloomsbury | |
| 2023: Nature Writing | Elizabeth-Jane Burnett | Twelve Words for Moss | Allen Lane | |
| 2023: Nature Writing | Stephen Moss | Ten Birds That Changed the World | Faber | |
| 2023: Nature Writing | Dorthe Nors | A Line in the World: A Year on the North Sea Coast | Pushkin | translated by Caroline Waight |
| 2023: Nature Writing | Katherine Rundell | The Golden Mole: And Other Living Treasure | Faber | illustrated by Talya Baldwin |
| 2023: Nature Writing | Amanda Thomson | Belonging: Natural Histories of Place, Identity and Home | Canongate | |
| 2023: Writing on Conservation | Guy Shrubsole * | The Lost Rainforests of Britain | William Collins | |
| 2023: Writing on Conservation | Keggie Carew | Beastly: A New History of Animals and Us | Canongate | |
| 2023: Writing on Conservation | Charles Clover | Rewilding the Sea: How to Save Our Oceans | Ebury | |
| 2023: Writing on Conservation | Sarah Langford | Rooted: How Regenerative Farming Can Change the World | Viking | |
| 2023: Writing on Conservation | Fiona Mathews and Tim Kendall | Black Ops and Beaver Bombing: Adventures with Britain's Wild Mammals | Oneworld | |
| 2023: Writing on Conservation | Gaia Vince | Nomad Century: How to Survive the Climate Upheaval | Allen Lane | |
| 2023:Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation | Kiran Millwood Hargrave * | Leila and the Blue Fox | Chicken House | illustrated by Tom de Freston |
| 2023:Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation | Nicola Davies | Protecting the Planet: The Season of Giraffes | Walker Books | illustrated by Emily Sutton |
| 2023:Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation | Olaf Falafel | Blobfish | Walker Books | |
| 2023:Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation | M. G. Leonard | Spark | Walker Books | |
| 2023:Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation | Dara McAnulty | A Wild Child's Book of Birds | MacmillanChildren's Books | illustrated by Barry Falls |
| 2023:Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation | Anna Wilson | Grandpa and the Kingfisher | Nosy Crow | illustrated by Sarah Massini |
| 2024: Nature Writing | Michael Malay * | Late Light: The Secret Wonders of a Disappearing World | Manila Press, Bonnier Books | |
| 2024: Nature Writing | Marchelle Farrell | Uprooting: From the Caribbean to the Countryside | Canongate | |
| 2024: Nature Writing | Kat Hill | Bothy: In Search of Simple Shelter | William Collins | |
| 2024: Nature Writing | Alastair Humphreys | Local: A Search for Nearby Nature and Wildness | Faber | |
| 2024: Nature Writing | Jessica J. Lee | Dispersals: On Plants, Borders and Belonging | Hamish Hamilton | |
| 2024: Nature Writing | Olivia Laing | The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise | Picador | |
| 2024: Nature Writing | 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 | |
| 2024: Writing on Conservation | Oliver Franklin-Wallis | Wasteland: The Dirty Truth About What We Throw Away, Where It Goes, and Why It Matters | Simon & Schuster | |
| 2024: Writing on Conservation | Chantal Lyons | Groundbreakers: The Return of Britain's Wild Boar | Bloomsbury Wildlife | |
| 2024: Writing on Conservation | Tori Tsui | It's Not Just You: How to Navigate Eco-Anxiety and the Climate Crisis | Simon & Schuster, Gallery Books | |
| 2024: Writing on Conservation | John Vaillant | Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World | Sceptre, Hodder & Stoughton | |
| 2024: Writing on Conservation | 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 | |
| 2024: Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation | Giselle Clarkson | The Observologist | Gecko Press | |
| 2024: Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation | Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin | Global | Hodder Children's Books | illustrated by Giovanni Rigano |
| 2024: Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation | Nicola Davies | Skrimsli | Firefly Press | illustrated by Jackie Morris |
| 2024: Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation | David Lindo | Fly: A Child's Guide to Birds and Where to Spot Them | Magic Cat Publishing | illustrated by Sara Boccaccini Meadows |
| 2024: Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation | Kiran Millwood Hargrave | Geomancer: In the Shadow of the Wolf Queen | Orion Children's Books | |
| 2024: Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation | Katherine Rundell | Impossible Creatures | Bloomsbury Children's | |
| 2024: Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation | Isabella Tree | Wilding: How to Bring Wildlife Back | Macmillan Children's Books | illustrated by Angela Harding |