The Wainwright Prize

The Wainwright Prizes are the UK’s foremost awards celebrating nature, conservation, and environmental writing. Named in honour of Alfred Wainwright, writer, walker, and champion of the outdoors, the prizes were established in 2013 to spotlight the growing genre of nature writing and inspire readers to connect more deeply with the natural world.

If you read this blog, you probably know that:
1. I am a huge nature lover. I work in horticulture and I am studying for a degree in plant science.
2. I read a lot of nature non-fiction.

I’ve followed The Wainwright Prizes for years, but I rarely manage to read even a fraction of the shortlists each time. So I have decided to set myself a challenge.

To read The Wainwright Prize.

This page will be my progress log and master list as this is going to be a multi-year challenge. The books number in the hundreds, and of course, that number grows every year. I have started by going through and hand-picking titles back to 2018 – mostly the winners, plus any other that I own or know I really want to read. Once I get through those, I will expand my list!

2025 Nature Writing Books

• Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton. Longlisted.
  • Read. Read my review here.
• The Possibility of Tenderness by Jason Allen-Paisant. Shortlisted.
  • Currently Reading.
• Our Oaken Bones by Merlin Hanbury-Tenison. Shortlisted.
  • TBR.
• Ingrained by Callum Robinson. Shortlisted.
  • TBR.
• The Company of Owls by Polly Atkin. Longlisted.
  • Read. Read my review here.
• England by John Lewis-Stempel. Longlisted.
  • TBR.

2025 Conservation Writing Books

• A Training School for Elephants by Sophy Roberts. Shortlisted.
  • Read. Read my review here.
• Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane. Shortlisted.
  • TBR. Owned.
• What the Wild Sea Can Be by Helen Scales. Shortlisted.
  • TBR.
• Nature Needs You by Hannah Bourne-Taylor. Longlisted.
  • Read.
• To Have or To Hold by Sophie Pavelle. Longlisted.
  • Read. Read my review here.
• Peatlands by Alys Fowler. Longlisted.
  • TBR.

2025 Children’s Fiction

• Land of the Last Wildcat by Lui Sit. Shortlisted.
  • Read.
• Turtle Moon by Hannah Gold. Shortlisted.
  • TBR.

2024 Nature Writing:

• Late Light by Michael Malay. Winner.
  • TBR.
• Dispersals: On Plants, Borders and Belonging by Jessica J. Lee. Shortlisted.
  • TBR.
• The Garden Against Time by Olivia Laing. Shortlisted.
  • TBR. Owned.

2024 Conservation Writing:

• Blue Machine: How the Ocean Shapes Our World by Helen Czerski. Winner. 
  • Read. Read my review here.
• Nature’s Ghosts by Sophie Yeo. Shortlisted.
  • TBR. Owned.
• Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World by John Vaillant. Shortlisted.
  • TBR. Owned.

2024 Children’s Writing:

• Foxlight by Katya Balen. Winner.
  • TBR. Owned.

2023 Nature Writing:

• The Flow: Rivers, Water and Wildness by Amy-Jane Beer. Winner.
  • TBR.
• Belonging: Natural histories of place, identity and home by Amanda Thompson. Shortlisted.
  • TBR.

2023 Conservation Writing:

• The Lost Rainforests of Britain by Guy Shrubsole. Winner. 
  • Read. Read my review here.

2023 Children’s Writing:

• Leila and the Blue Fox by Kiran Millwood Hargrave. Winner.
  • TBR.

2022 Nature Writing:

• Goshawk Summer by James Aldred. Winner.
  • TBR.
• Otherlands by Thomas Halliday. Shortlisted.
  • TBR.

2022 Conservation Writing:

• Eating to Extinction by Dan Saladino. Winner.
  • TBR.

2022 Children’s Writing:

• October, October by Katya Balen. Shortlisted.
  • TBR.

2021 Nature Writing

• English Pastoral by James Rebanks. Winner.
  • TBR.
• Seed to Dust by Marc Hamer. Shortlisted.
  • TBR. Owned.

2021 Conservation Writing:

• Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake. Winner.
  • Read.
• A Life on Our Planet by David Attenborough. Shortlisted. 
  • Read.

2020 Nature Writing:

• Diary of a Young Naturalist by Dara McAnulty. Winner.
  • TBR.
• Wanderland by Jini Reddy. Shortlisted.
  • TBR.

2020 Conservation Writing:

• Rebirding by Benedict Macdonald. Winner.
  • TBR.

2019 Overall Winner:

• Underland by Robert Macfarlane.
  • TBR. Owned.

2018 Overall Winner:

• The Seabird’s Cry by Adam Nicolson.
  • TBR.