The James Cropper Wainwright Prize is awarded annually to the books which most successfully inspire readers to explore the outdoors and to nurture a respect for the natural world. Marking its 10th Anniversary, this year’s winning books cast a spotlight on remarkable habitats – wild rivers, lost rainforests and the wonderous Arctic – inspiring advocacy for, and reconnection with, nature for readers of all ages.

Here are the winners for each category:

Nature Writing

The Flow by Amy-Jane Beer

On New Year’s Day, 2012, Amy-Jane Beer and a group of her best friends set out to kayak a small river in the Howgill Fells. One of those friends, Kate, didn’t come home leaving a devoted husband, a young daughter and a wide circle of friends bereft, bewildered and unmoored.

Years later, missing the emotional connection to the natural world she always felt when she was close to rivers, Amy-Jane decides to reignite her love of rivers. She starts tentatively and close to home and then visits rivers further afield that she knows well – the Tees, the Wharfe, the Conwy, and the Lune – before she feels able to move onto rivers she doesn’t know well, including the Tweed, the Parrett, the Otter and the Wye.

Please note: the paperback edition is due for publication on or around 28th November 2023 and can be pre-ordered here.

Alastair Giles, Director of the James Cropper Wainwright Prize, said:

'Our 2023 Nature Book of the Year winner is regrettably very topical, and every judge absolutely loved the book. The glorious detail and personal experiences, all written in such elegant and beautifully poetic language, was unparalleled.'

Highly Commended was awarded to:

The Golden Mole: And Other Living Treasure by Katherine Rundell & Talya Baldwin (illus.)

Also shortlisted in this catergory were:

• The Birds That Change the World by Stephen Moss
• Twelve Words for Moss by Elizabeth-Jane Burnett
• Belonging: Natural Histories of Place, Identity and Home by Amanda Thomson
• A Line in the World: A Year on the North Sea Coast by Dorthe Nors

Writing on Conservation

The Lost Rainforests of Britain by Guy Shrubsole

Temperate rainforest may once have covered up to one-fifth of Britain, inspiring Celtic druids, Welsh wizards, Romantic poets, and Arthur Conan Doyle's most loved creations. Though only fragments now remain, they are home to a dazzling variety of luminous life-forms.

In this awe-inspiring investigation, Guy Shrubsole travels through the Western Highlands and the Lake District, down to the rainforests of Wales, Devon, and Cornwall to map these spectacular lost worlds for the first time.

Please note: this edition is due for publication on or around 29th November 2023 and can be pre-ordered here.

Chair of Judges, Craig Bennett, Chief Executive of The Wildlife Trusts, said: 

'A highly original, meticulously researched and beautifully written book which takes the reader on a thrilling journey to one of the rarest, most precious habitats to be found in Britain, while also offering some powerful ideas and hope about how the decline of these majestic rainforests might be reversed. Shrubsole’s inquisitive, determined, passionate personality shines through, and offers the reader education, inspiration and entertainment from start to finish.'

Highly Commended was awarded to:

Nomad Century: How to Survive the Climate Upheaval by Gaia Vince

Please note: the paperback edition is due for publication on or around 28th November and can pre-ordered here.

Also shortlisted in this category were:

• Black Ops and Beaver Bombing: Adventures with Britain's Mammals by Tim Fiona & Kendall Mathews
• Rooted: Stories of Life, Land and a Farming Revolution by Sarah Langford
• Rewilding the Sea: How to Save Our Oceans by Charles Clover
• Beastly: A New History of Animals and Us by Keggie Carew

Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation

Leila and the Blue Fox by Kiran Millwood Hargrave & Tom de Freston (illus.)

She was very tired. She lay down, her soft head on her soft paws. The sunset licked her face. The snow covered her like a blanket. Fox wakes, and begins to walk. She crosses ice and snow, over mountains and across frozen oceans, encountering bears and birds beneath the endless daylight of an Arctic summer, navigating a world that is vast, wild and wondrous.

Meanwhile, Leila embarks on a journey of her own – finding her way to the mother who left her. On a breathtaking journey across the sea, Leila rediscovers herself and the mother she thought she’d lost, with help from a determined little fox.

This compelling, emotional and beautifully illustrated story is the perfect gift for 9+ readers. 

Please note: the paperback edition is due for publication on or around the 31st October and can be pre-ordered here.

Mark Funnell, Chair of Judges and Communication and Campaign Director at the National Trust, said: 'The interplay between Kiran’s profoundly affecting writing and Tom’s hauntingly beautiful illustrations is uniquely potent, plunging us into the intertwined worlds of family relationships and nature obsession with a visceral impact that readers won’t forget. It’s hard to think of a book that could do more to inspire young people to engage with the natural world, in this case as climate change tears up the rule book for species migration and survival, but without extinguishing all hope. Exceptional storytelling, and a triumph of the genre.'

Also shortlisted in this category were these amazing books:

• Grandpa and the Kingfisher by Anna Wilson & Sarah Massini (illus.)
• A Wild Child’s Book of Birds by Dara McAnulty & Barry Falls (illus.)
• Spark by M.G. Leonard
• Blobfish by Olaf Falafel
• The Season of Giraffes (Protecting the Planet) by Nicola Davies & Emily Sutton (illus.)

More information on the James Cropper Wainwright Prize can be found here.