Wainwright Prize
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.
History
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 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.In 2020 the prize was no longer sponsored, but was supported by an anonymous benefactor and was "in association with the National Trust". 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. From 2022 until 2024, the prizes were known as the James Cropper Wainwright Prizes. 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.
In 2024 it was announced that the prize would be seeking new sponsorship. 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 Agile.
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. 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.
Winners and shortlisted titles
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
2014–2019: One prize
| Year | Author | Book | Publisher | Ref. |
| 2014 | * | ' | Windmill | |
| 2014 | Walking Home | Faber & Faber | ||
| 2014 | Badgerlands | Granta | ||
| 2014 | Under Another Sky | Vintage | ||
| 2014 | ' | Penguin | ||
| 2014 | Field Notes from a Hidden City | Granta | ||
| 2015 | * | Meadowland | Penguin | |
| 2015 | Running Free: A Runner's Journey Back to Nature | Yellow Jersey | ||
| 2015 | ' | Faber & Faber | ||
| 2015 | Claxton: Field Notes from a Small Planet | Vintage | ||
| 2015 | H is for Hawk | Vintage | ||
| 2015 | Rising Ground: A Search for the Spirit of Place | Granta | ||
| 2016 | * | ' | Canongate | |
| 2016 | Common Ground | Windmill | ||
| 2016 | Landmarks | Penguin | ||
| 2016 | ' | John Murray Press | ||
| 2016 | ' | Bloomsbury | ||
| 2016 | ' | Penguin | ||
| 2017 | * | ' | Weidenfeld and Nicolson | |
| 2017 | Love of Country | Granta | ||
| 2017 | ' | William Collins | ||
| 2017 | ' | Black Swan | ||
| 2017 | Wild Kingdom | Vintage | ||
| 2017 | ' | Black Swan | ||
| 2017 | ' | Hodder & Stoughton | ||
| 2018 | * | ' | William Collins | |
| 2018 | ' | Headline | ||
| 2018 | Hidden Nature | Hodder & Stoughton | ||
| 2018 | Outskirts | Hodder & Stoughton | ||
| 2018 | ' | Canongate | ||
| 2018 | and Jackie Morris | ' | Hamish Hamilton | |
| 2018 | ' | Penguin | ||
| 2019 | * | Underland | Hamish Hamilton | |
| 2019 | Time Song | Vintage | ||
| 2019 | ' | Sandstone | ||
| 2019 | Our Place | Vintage | ||
| 2019 | Thinking on My Feet | Octopus Books | ||
| 2019 | Wilding | Picador | ||
| 2019 | Out of the Woods | Weidenfeld and Nicolson |
2020–2021: Two prizes
| Year | Author | Book | Publisher | Ref. |
| 2020: Global Conservation | * | Rebirding: Restoring Britain's Wildlife | Pelagic Publishing | |
| 2020: Global Conservation | What We Need to Do Now | Profile Books | ||
| 2020: Global Conservation | Irreplaceable | Penguin | ||
| 2020: Global Conservation | Life Changing: How Humans Are Altering Life on Earth | Bloomsbury Sigma | ||
| 2020: Global Conservation | Working With Nature | Profile Books | ||
| 2020: Global Conservation | Sitopia: How Food Can Save the World | Vintage | ||
| 2020: UK Nature Writing | * | Diary of a Young Naturalist | Ebury Press | |
| 2020: UK Nature Writing | Dark, Salt, Clear: Life in a Cornish Fishing Town | Bloomsbury | ||
| 2020: UK Nature Writing | William Collins | |||
| 2020: UK Nature Writing | Native: Life in a Vanishing Landscape | Birlinn General | ||
| 2020: UK Nature Writing | On the Red Hill | Windmill | ||
| 2020: UK Nature Writing | Wanderland: A Search for Magic in the Landscape | Bloomsbury Wildlife | ||
| 2020: UK Nature Writing | Dancing with Bees: A Journey Back to Nature | Chelsea Green | ||
| 2021: Global Conservation | * | Entangled Life | Penguin Random House | |
| 2021: Global Conservation | A Life on Our Planet | Ebury Press | ||
| 2021: Global Conservation | Islands of Abandonment | William Collins | ||
| 2021: Global Conservation | Fathoms: The World in the Whale | Scribe Publications | ||
| 2021: Global Conservation | Net Zero: How We Stop Causing Climate Change | William Collins | ||
| 2021: Global Conservation | Under a White Sky | Vintage | ||
| 2021: UK Nature Writing | * | English Pastoral: An Inheritance | Penguin | |
| 2021: UK Nature Writing | The Screaming Sky | Little Toller Books | ||
| 2021: UK Nature Writing | Featherhood | Orion | ||
| 2021: UK Nature Writing | Seed to Dust | Vintage | ||
| 2021: UK Nature Writing | Thin Places | Canongate | ||
| 2021: UK Nature Writing | I Belong Here | Bloomsbury Wildlife | ||
| 2021: UK Nature Writing | The Wild Silence | Penguin |
2022–2024: Addition of a children's prize
| Year | Author | Book | Publisher | Ref. |
| 2022: Nature Writing | * | Goshawk Summer: A New Forest Season Unlike Any Other | Elliott & Thompson | |
| 2022: Nature Writing | On Gallows Down: Place, Protest and Belonging | Chelsea Green | ||
| 2022: Nature Writing | Shadowlands: A Journey Through Lost Britain | Faber & Faber | ||
| 2022: Nature Writing | The Instant | Canongate | ||
| 2022: Nature Writing | Time on Rock: A Climber's Route into the Mountains | Canongate | ||
| 2022: Nature Writing | Otherlands: A World in the Making | Allen Lane | ||
| 2022: Writing on Conservation | * | Eating to Extinction: The World's Rarest Foods and Why We Need to Save Them | Jonathan Cape | |
| 2022: Writing on Conservation | Our Biggest Experiment: A History of the Climate Crisis | Bloomsbury Sigma | ||
| 2022: Writing on Conservation | Silent Earth: Averting the Insect Apocalypse | Vintage | ||
| 2022: Writing on Conservation | The Insect Crisis: The Fall of the Tiny Empires That Run the World | Atlantic Books | ||
| 2022: Writing on Conservation | Regenesis: Feeding the World Without Devouring the Planet | Allen Lane | ||
| 2022: Writing on Conservation | The Treeline: The Last Forest and the Future of Life on Earth | Jonathan Cape | ||
| 2022: Writing on Conservation | Wild Fell: Fighting for Nature on a Lake District Hill Farm | Doubleday | ||
| 2022: Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation | Illustrated by Tom Sears* | The Biggest Footprint: Eight Billion Humans. One Clumsy Giant | Canongate | |
| 2022: Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation | October, October | Bloomsbury Children's Books | ||
| 2022: Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation | Illustrated by Jenni Desmond | One World: 24 Hours on Planet Earth | Walker Books | |
| 2022: Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation | Illustrated by Tom de Freston | Julia and the Shark | Orion Children's Books | |
| 2022: Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation | Illustrated by Angela Harding | By Rowan and Yew | Chicken House | |
| 2022: Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation | Illustrated by Kaja Kajfež | Around the World in 80 Trees | Welbeck | |
| 2022: Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation | Illustrated by Barry Falls | Wild Child: A Journey Through Nature | Macmillan Children's Books | |
| 2023: Nature Writing | * | The Flow: Rivers, Water and Wildness | Bloomsbury | |
| 2023: Nature Writing | Twelve Words for Moss | Allen Lane | ||
| 2023: Nature Writing | Ten Birds That Changed the World | Faber | ||
| 2023: Nature Writing | Translated by Caroline Waight | A Line in the World: A Year on the North Sea Coast | Pushkin | |
| 2023: Nature Writing | Illustrated by Talya Baldwin | The Golden Mole: And Other Living Treasure | Faber | |
| 2023: Nature Writing | Belonging: Natural Histories of Place, Identity and Home | Canongate | ||
| 2023: Writing on Conservation | * | The Lost Rainforests of Britain | William Collins | |
| 2023: Writing on Conservation | Beastly: A New History of Animals and Us | Canongate | ||
| 2023: Writing on Conservation | Rewilding the Sea: How to Save Our Oceans | Ebury | ||
| 2023: Writing on Conservation | Rooted: How Regenerative Farming Can Change the World | Viking | ||
| 2023: Writing on Conservation | and Tim Kendall | Black Ops and Beaver Bombing: Adventures with Britain's Wild Mammals | Oneworld | |
| 2023: Writing on Conservation | Nomad Century: How to Survive the Climate Upheaval | Allen Lane | ||
| 2023: Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation | Illustrated by Tom de Freston* | Leila and the Blue Fox | Chicken House | |
| 2023: Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation | Illustrated by Emily Sutton | Protecting the Planet: The Season of Giraffes | Walker Books | |
| 2023: Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation | Blobfish | Walker Books | ||
| 2023: Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation | Spark | Walker Books | ||
| 2023: Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation | Illustrated by Barry Falls | A Wild Child's Book of Birds | Macmillan Children's Books | |
| 2023: Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation | Illustrated by Sarah Massini | Grandpa and the Kingfisher | Nosy Crow | |
| 2024: Nature Writing | * | Late Light: The Secret Wonders of a Disappearing World | Manila Press, Bonnier Books | |
| 2024: Nature Writing | Uprooting: From the Caribbean to the Countryside | Canongate | ||
| 2024: Nature Writing | Bothy: In Search of Simple Shelter | William Collins | ||
| 2024: Nature Writing | Local: A Search for Nearby Nature and Wildness | Faber | ||
| 2024: Nature Writing | Dispersals: On Plants, Borders and Belonging | Hamish Hamilton | ||
| 2024: Nature Writing | The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise | Picador | ||
| 2024: Nature Writing | Rural: The Lives of the Working Class Countryside | William Collins | ||
| 2024: Writing on Conservation | * | Blue Machine: How the Ocean Shapes Our World | Torva, Transworld | |
| 2024: Writing on Conservation | Wasteland: The Dirty Truth About What We Throw Away, Where It Goes, and Why It Matters | Simon & Schuster | ||
| 2024: Writing on Conservation | Groundbreakers: The Return of Britain's Wild Boar | Bloomsbury Wildlife | ||
| 2024: Writing on Conservation | It's Not Just You: How to Navigate Eco-Anxiety and the Climate Crisis | Simon & Schuster, Gallery Books | ||
| 2024: Writing on Conservation | Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World | Sceptre, Hodder & Stoughton | ||
| 2024: Writing on Conservation | Nature's Ghosts: The World We Lost and How to Bring it Back | HarperNorth/ HarperCollins | ||
| 2024: Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation | * | Foxlight | Bloomsbury Children's | |
| 2024: Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation | The Observologist | Gecko Press | ||
| 2024: Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation | and Andrew Donkin Illustrated by Giovanni Rigano | Global | Hodder Children's Books | |
| 2024: Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation | Illustrated by Jackie Morris | Skrimsli | Firefly Press | |
| 2024: Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation | Illustrated by Sara Boccaccini Meadows | Fly: A Child's Guide to Birds and Where to Spot Them | Magic Cat Publishing | |
| 2024: Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation | Geomancer: In the Shadow of the Wolf Queen | Orion Children's Books | ||
| 2024: Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation | Impossible Creatures | Bloomsbury Children's | ||
| 2024: Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation | Illustrated by Angela Harding | Wilding: How to Bring Wildlife Back | Macmillan Children's Books |
2025: Six prize categories
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 and the winners were announced on 10 September.
* Category winners
‡ Overall winners
| Year | Author | Book | Publisher | Ref. |
| 2025: Nature Writing | ‡ | Raising Hare | Canongate | |
| 2025: Nature Writing | The Possibility of Tenderness | Hutchinson Heinemann | ||
| 2025: Nature Writing | Intertidal | Bonnier Books | ||
| 2025: Nature Writing | Our Oaken Bones | Witness Books | ||
| 2025: Nature Writing | Of Thorn & Briar | Simon & Schuster | ||
| 2025: Nature Writing | The Accidental Garden | Profile Books | ||
| 2025: Nature Writing | Ingrained | Penguin | ||
| 2025: Conservation Writing | * | The Lie of the Land | William Collins | |
| 2025: Conservation Writing | Nature's Genius | Canongate | ||
| 2025: Conservation Writing | Is a River Alive? | Hamish Hamilton | ||
| 2025: Conservation Writing | Red Pockets | Allen Lane | ||
| 2025: Conservation Writing | Translared by Sarah Pybus | Climate Injustice | Greystone Books | |
| 2025: Conservation Writing | A Training School for Elephants | Doubleday | ||
| 2025: Conservation Writing | What the Wild Sea Can Be | Atlantic Books | ||
| 2025: Illustrative Books | , Joel K. Bourne Jr. and Michael Pollan* | Feed the Planet | Abrams | |
| 2025: Illustrative Books | Illustrated by Carry Akroyd | Swoop Sing Perch Paddle | Bloomsbury Wildlife | |
| 2025: Illustrative Books | Illustrated by Amanda Dilworth | Homecoming | Weidenfeld & Nicolson | |
| 2025: Illustrative Books | Insectopolis | W. W. Norton & Company | ||
| 2025: Illustrative Books | The Perimeter | Hutchinson Heinemann, Penguin | ||
| 2025: Illustrative Books | Trees in Winter | Sphere | ||
| 2025: The Children's Wainwright Prize for Fiction | * | Wildlands | Puffin Books | |
| 2025: The Children's Wainwright Prize for Fiction | Ghostlines | Bloomsbury Children's | ||
| 2025: The Children's Wainwright Prize for Fiction | Illustrated by Levi Pinfold | Turtle Moon | HarperCollins | |
| 2025: The Children's Wainwright Prize for Fiction | Illustrated by Pam Smy | Ettie and the Midnight Pool | David Fickling Books | |
| 2025: The Children's Wainwright Prize for Fiction | Wildful | Pushkin Children’s Books | ||
| 2025: The Children's Wainwright Prize for Fiction | Illustrated by David Dean | Land of the Last Wildcat | Macmillan Children’s Books | |
| 2025: The Children's Wainwright Prize for Non-Fiction | Illustrated by Nina Chakrabarti* | University of Cambridge: Think Big: Secrets of Bees | Nosy Crow | |
| 2025: The Children's Wainwright Prize for Non-Fiction | Illustrated by Jesús Verona | National Trust: Look What I Found by the River | Nosy Crow | |
| 2025: The Children's Wainwright Prize for Non-Fiction | Illustrated by Gavin Scott | MEGA | Nosy Crow | |
| 2025: The Children's Wainwright Prize for Non-Fiction | Illustrated by William Grill | Cloudspotting for Beginners | Particular Books | |
| 2025: The Children's Wainwright Prize for Non-Fiction | Illustrated by Terri Po | Wildlife in the Balances | Flying Eye Books | |
| 2025: The Children's Wainwright Prize for Non-Fiction | Illustrated by Louise Forshaw | Hamza’s Wild World | Macmillan Children’s Books | |
| 2025: The Children's Wainwright Prize for Picture Books | Illustrated by Hoang Giang‡ | Flower Block | Puffin Books | |
| 2025: The Children's Wainwright Prize for Picture Books | Bothered By Bugs | Too Hoots | ||
| 2025: The Children's Wainwright Prize for Picture Books | HERD | Bloomsbury Children’s Books | ||
| 2025: The Children's Wainwright Prize for Picture Books | and Johnny Flynn Illustrated by Emily Sutton | The World to Come | Magic Cat Publishing | |
| 2025: The Children's Wainwright Prize for Picture Books | Illustrated by Daniel Egnéus | Frog | Bloomsbury Children's Books | |
| 2025: The Children's Wainwright Prize for Picture Books | Illustrated by Melissa Castrillon | Leave the Trees, Please | Magic Cat Publishing | |
| 2025: The Children's Wainwright Prize for Picture Books | The Wild | Oxford University Press |