Adventuring in the wild and protecting rare habitats are the major themes of the winning titles for the 10th Wainwright prize.
The £10,000 prize, started in 2013 to celebrate books that best inspire readers to explore and nurture respect for the outdoors, will be split between the winners of three categories.
Yorkshire-based biologist Amy-Jane Beer placed first in the nature writing category for her book The Flow: Rivers, Waters and Wildness, which chronicles the writer’s journey of natural and personal discovery after revisiting the river where she lost a friend in a kayaking accident. Beer is a longstanding writer for the Guardian’s Country Diary column.
Prize director Alastair Giles said that Beer’s book is “regrettably very topical” and that “every judge absolutely loved” it. “The glorious detail and personal experiences, all written in such elegant and beautifully poetic language, was unparalleled.” The category’s judging panel was chaired by BBC Countryfile presenter Charlotte Smith.
The conservation category was won by researcher Guy Shrubsole from Devon for his book The Lost Rainforests of Britain, about the forgotten temperate rainforests that may once have covered up to a fifth of the country, inspired by the author stumbling upon a fragment of rainforest on the edge of Dartmoor.
Category judging chair Craig Bennett, chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts, said Shrubsole’s book is “highly original, meticulously researched and beautifully written” and “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”, he added.
The prize for children’s nature and conservation writing went to writer Kiran Millwood Hargrave and illustrator Tom de Freston from Oxford for Leila and the Blue Fox, which tells the story of a young fox and a girl on an Arctic adventure, inspired by the true story of a fox that walked 2,000 miles from Norway to Canada in 76 days.
“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,” said children’s category judging chair and communications and campaigns director at the National Trust Mark Funnell.
“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.”
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The winners were announced at a ceremony in Kendal in the Lake District, the home of nature writer Alfred Wainwright. As well as the prize money, each winner will receive a specially commissioned original artwork by dried flower embroiderer, Olga Prinku.
Highly commended in the nature writing category was Katherine Rundell’s The Golden Mole and Other Living Treasure, illustrated by Talya Baldwin. In the conservation writing category, Gaia Vince was highly commended for Nomad Century: How to Survive the Climate Upheaval.
Previous winners of the prize include John Lewis-Stempel, Robert Macfarlane, Merlin Sheldrake, James Rebanks and Amy Liptrot.
To explore all the books nominated for the Wainwright prize 2023, visit guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.