Winners of the 2024 Wainwright Prize
The winners of the 2024 Wainwright Prize have been announced!
The Wainwright Prize is awarded annually to books which most successfully inspire readers to embrace nature and the outdoors, and develop a respect for the environment. This year’s winning books highlight the exploration of nature on a global scale through journeys of migration, finding beauty in the everyday, and celebrating the deep connections between humanity and nature through powerful storytelling.
🌳 Nature Writing
Late Light by Michael Malay
Late Light is the story of Michael Malay's own journey, an Indonesian Australian making a home for himself in England and finding strange parallels between his life and the lives of the animals he examines. Mixing natural history with memoir, this book explores the mystery of our animal neighbours, in all their richness and variety. It is about the wonder these animals inspired in our ancestors, the hope they inspire in us, and the joy they might still hold for our children.
Late Light is about migration, belonging and extinction. Through the close examination of four particular 'unloved' animals – eels, moths, crickets and mussels – Michael Malay tells the story of the economic, political and cultural events that have shaped the modern landscape of Britain.
Dr Khalil Thirlaway, Chair of Judges in the Nature Writing category and Biologist and Presenter, said:
'Late Light brings the reader along with Michael Malay on a very human journey of discovery, connection and realisation. Michael portrays his evolving emotional and intellectual relationships with people, place and nature in a way that’s very easy to get on board with, while still having moments of beautiful prose that uplift the reading experience. Accompanying the author through the book, the reader will go on their own journey in relation to the experiences, themes and issues raised as things progress to an empowering call for positive change.'
🌿 Highly Commended was awarded to:
Dispersals: On Plants, Borders and Belonging by Jessica J. Lee
🌳 Writing on Conservation
Blue Machine by Helen Czerski
All of the Earth's ocean, from the equator to the poles, is a single engine powered by sunlight – a blue machine. Earth is home to a huge story that is rarely told; not the fish or the dolphins, but the massive ocean engine itself – what it does, why it works, and the many ways it has influenced animals, weather and human history & culture.
In a book that will recalibrate our view of this defining feature of our planet, physicist Helen Czerski dives deep to illuminate the murky depths of the ocean engine, examining the messengers, passengers and voyagers that live in it, travel over it, and survive because of it. From the ancient Polynesians who navigated the Pacific by reading the waves, to permanent residents of the deep such as the Greenland shark that can live for hundreds of years, she explains the vast currents, invisible ocean walls and underwater waterfalls that all have their place in the ocean's complex, interlinked system.
Joycelyn Longdon, Chair of Judges in the Writing on Conservation category and Founder of Climate in Colour, said:
'In Blue Machine, we are immersed into the world of the ocean with spectacular detail, from the minuscule to the macroscopic, guided through the ocean’s anatomy and introduced to the people who live in intimate relationships with it. It is overwhelming and astounding how little we know about our oceans despite the immense role they play in sustaining life on this planet. With ocean temperatures reaching 400-year highs, and mounting threats from deep-sea mining operations across the globe, understanding and taking action to protect ocean ecosystems has never been more urgent. Through compelling narratives, inspiring stories and in-depth research Helen Czerski transforms our view of the Blue Machine.'
🌿 Highly Commended was awarded to:
The Groundbreakers: The Return of Britain's Wild Boar by Chantal Lyons
🌳 Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation
Foxlight by Katya Balen
Fen and Rey were found curled up small and tight in the fiery fur of the foxes at the very edge of the wildlands. Fen is loud and fierce and free. She feels a connection to foxes and a calling from the wild that she's desperate to return to. Rey is quiet and shy and an expert on nature. She reads about the birds, feeds the lands and nurtures the world around her.
They are twin sisters. Different and the same. Separate and connected. They will always have each other, even if they don't have a mother and don't know their beginning. But they do want answers. Answers to who their mother is and where she might be. What their story is and how it began. So when a fox appears late one night at the house, Fen and Rey see it as a sign – it's here to lead them to their truth, find their real family and fill the missing piece they have felt since they were born.
Roisin Taylor, Chair of Judges in the Children’s Writing on Nature and Conservation category and Co-Director at UK Youth for Nature, said:
“Foxlight stood out for all of the judges for its rich warmth of storytelling, demonstrating the need for adventure and interaction with nature at its messiest to ensure a life connected to it. It’s a book that dances from the start; sharing a tale of sisterhood in the unruly natural world, and the depths we go to find connection. Young people need connection to nature now more than ever, and Katya Balen artfully shows us how simple that can be – through adventure, joy and discovery.”
🌿 Highly Commended was awarded to:
Global by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin, illustrated by Giovanni Rigano
