The award is given to books “which best reflects Wainwright’s core values of Great British writing & culture and a celebration of the outdoors”. Authors from any country may submit their books but they must be related to nature, the outdoors or “travel writing (not guidebooks) covering Great Britain.”
The Longlist for the 2018 Prize was just announced on 5th June and consists of:
21st Century Yokel by Tom Cox
Hidden Nature by Alys Fowler
Outskirts by John Grindrod
Islander by Patrick Barkham
The Secret Life of Cows by Rosamund Young
Owl Sense by Miriam Darlington
The Dun Cow Rib by John Lister-Kaye
The Last Wilderness by Neil Ansell
The Salt Path by Raynor Winn
The Seabird’s Cry by Adam Nicolson
The Wood by John Lewis-Stempel
A Wood of One’s Own by Ruth Pavey
The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris
The winner gets a £5,000 prize fund . Last year’s winner was Where Poppies Blow by John Lewis Stempel, a book about the British soldiers who fought in the first world war and their relationship with the flora and fauna of their homeland and the battlefield.
The prize shortlist will be announced on 5th July.