Lakeland Book of the Year


The Lakeland Book of the Year, also known as the Hunter Davies Lakeland Book of the Year is an award named for the Lake District of north west England and given annually for a book, originally "set in or featuring Cumbria in some way". From 2026 the criterion is that "The author of the book should have strong connections to Cumbria, or the book itself must have a majority of Cumbria-related content." It was founded by writer Hunter Davies in 1984 and was administered by Cumbria Tourism until 2025. Davies was one of the judges from 1984 to 2022. In 2023, following Davies's retirement from the role, the judges were Fiona Armstrong, Eric Robson, Michael McGregor, director of Wordsworth Grasmere, and "guest judge" Rachel Laverack from Cumbria County Council. The prizes were traditionally announced at a gala lunch in June, although in 2020 the proceedings took place online because of COVID-19.
Cumbria Tourism announced the dates for the 2025 award, but later announced that they were no longer organising the award.
From 2026 "The awards... are now run by the Lakeland Book of the Year in association with a panel of distinguished patrons and judges." the patrons are Hunter Davies, Marie-Elsa Roche Bragg, Michael McGregor, Kathleen Jones, Fiona Armstrong, and Simon Stephens.
There are a number of awards for specific categories of books, and an overall winner is selected as the "Book of the Year". From the 2021 competition, and still for 2026, the categories were:
  • Fiction
  • Guides and Places
  • Illustration and Presentation
  • Landscape and Tradition
  • Literature and Poetry
  • People and Business
In 2023 a new prize for Children's Poem of the Year, sponsored by CGP Books was added, open to Cumbrian schoolchildren between key stages 2 and 5.

Winners

YearAuthorTitlePublisher & ISBNNotes
1984 jointAA/OS Guide to the Lake DistrictAA/OS
1984 jointWilliam Green of Ambleside: Lake District Artist Abbot Hall Art Gallery on William Green
1985Fellwalking with WainwrightMichael Joseph 18 favourite walks; new ed published 2006
1986/87 jointLakeland from the AirDalesman with foreword by Alfred Wainwright
1986/87 jointWalking with a Camera in Herries' LakelandFountain Press referring to Hugh Walpole's Herries Chronicles
1988'Victor Gollancz on the poet's wife Sara Fricker
1989Country DiaryHodder & Stoughton Wilson wrote for "Country Diary" in The Guardian for 30 years
1990Dream gardens: discovering the gardens of the Lake DistrictCentury
1991'Sutton editor is a descendant of Lady Anne
1992 Coleridge Walks the Fells: A Lakeland Journey Retraced Ellenbank retracing Coleridge's 1802 9-day walk
1993Rocky Rambler's Wild WalkerCicerone 10 Lake District walks for children
1994'Chatto & Windus a 3rd ed was published in 2015
1995'Sutton author's great-uncle was Beatrix Potter's husband William Heelis
1996Cumbrian Women Remember: Lake District Life in the Early 1900sSutton
1997'Lakeland Press Agency on Woodrow Wilson's visits to the area: his mother was born in Carlisle
1998Percy Kelly: a Cumbrian ArtistSkiddaw on Percy Kelly
1999Sam Bough, RSA: the Rivers in BohemiaBook Guild on Carlisle-born Sam Bough RSA
2000 Sigma Leisure autobiography
2001Rex Malden's WhitehavenTry Malden photographs by John Malden's father, vicar of Whitehaven
2002Cumbrian MiningBlue Rock in 2002 the author ran the Threlkeld Quarry and Mining Museum
2003'Cumbria Bird Club
2004Lakeland life in the 1940s and 1950s : the photographs of Gwen BertelsmanHalsgrove Gwen Bertelsman died in 1994
2005'Lake Artists Society on the
2006'Frances Lincoln on Levens Hall
2007Beatrix Potter: A Life In NaturePenguin on Beatrix Potter
2008Gardens of the Lake DistrictFrances Lincoln
2009Ivver Sen: Lake District: The Life and Times of the Men and Women Who Work the Land River Greta Writer title means "Ever since" in Cumbrian dialect
2010Hercules and the Farmer’s Wife; And Other Stories from a Cumbrian Art GalleryAurum Press by owner of the Castlegate House Art Gallery in Cockermouth
2011Sheila Fell: a Passion for PaintLund Humphries on Sheila Fell
2012 jointDear Mary, Love Percy: A Creative Thread - The Illustrated Letters of Percy Kelly to Mary Burkett 1968-1993Skiddaw Press letters from Percy Kelly to Mary Burkett
2012 jointJack's Yak: A Unique Journey Through Time with the Special Trees of the Lake District and Cumbria and the Remarkable Stories They Have to TellRiver Greta Writer the title tree is an oak on the Lowther estate
2013'Bookcase when Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens visited in 1857 and wrote The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices
2014Undressed for DinnerHayloft on turning Augill Castle into
2015'Allen Lane on sheep farming in Matterdale
2016Lakeland Waterways: a history of travel along the English LakesLily Beale is a Windermere Lake Cruises skipper
2017'Jonathan Cape a walk through the Scottish Marches
2018Portrait of Cumbria: Life and LandscapeCN Group photographs
2019'Chitty Mouse Press on corpse roads
2020The Lake District in 101 Maps and InfographicsJake Island Announced online 30 June 2020, no gala lunch event, because of COVID-19. "The graphics cover just about everything people want to know or think they know about the Lakes".
2021Hungry: A Memoir of Wanting MoreHarperCollins autobiography
2022Panic as Man Burns Crumpets: The Vanishing World of the Local JournalistRobinson autobiography
2023Forty Farms: Conversations about change in the landscapes of CumbriaJake Island photography
2024Some Of Us Just FallSceptre memoir
2025Cumbria, 1000 Years of MapsInspired by Lakeland

The 2026 award will be for books published between 1 January and 31 December 2025. A longlist will be announced in May 2026 and a shortlist in June 2026, with the winners being annnounced at an event in July.