Wainwright Prize 2024: Available titles from the 2024 shortlist along with winners and nominees from previous years.

Available print titles from the 2024 shortlist along with winners and nominees from previous years.

Our eAudio and eBook collection can be found at: kirklees.overdrive.com/Wainwright Prize 2024

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 celebrate the deep connections between humanity and nature through powerful storytelling.

https://wainwrightprize.com

Updated September 23, 2024
Kirklees Libraries
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Goshawk Summer: A New Forest Season Unlike Any Other
Aldred, James.
Paper Book
'The wood holds its breath, the only sound the begging of the chicks. The forest hasn't been this peaceful for a thousand years.'  When lockdown happened, wildlife cameraman James Aldred had the unique experience of being alone in the New Forest with a family...
Foxlight
Balen, Katya
Paper Book
*** WINNER OF THE 2024 WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR CHILDREN'S WRITING *** From the author of October, October, winner of the Yoto Carnegie Medal, comes a heartbreaking and heart-warming story about sisterhood, found family and accepting love in the most unusual and unknown...
October, October
Balen, Katya; Harding, Angela
Paper Book
_______________ WINNER OF THE YOTO CARNEGIE MEDAL 2022 WINNER OF THE YOTO CARNEGIE SHADOWERS' CHOICE AWARD 2022 _______________ 'A very special new addition to the shelf and deserves classic status' - The Times Children's Book of...
Wild green wonders : a life in nature
Barkham, Patrick
Paper Book
The collected writings from one of the nation's most celebrated nature writers.
The flow : rivers, water and wildness
Beer, Amy-Jane
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE 2023 JAMES CROPPER WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR NATURE WRITING 'Unparalleled.' THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE 'A true masterpiece.' TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT 'A tour de force.' GUY SHRUBSOLE 'Quietly courageous.' PATRICK...
Our Biggest Experiment: A History Of The Climate Crisis
Bell, Alice.
Paper Book
It was Eunice Newton Foote, an American scientist and women's rights campaigner living in Seneca Falls, New York, who first warned the world that an atmosphere heavy with carbon dioxide could send temperatures here on Earth soaring. This was back in 1856. At the time, no one paid much attention....
The Easternmost Sky: Adapting to Change in the 21st Century
Blaxland, Juliet
Paper Book
The Easternmost Sky is part memoir, part elegy and part warning.It was written on the Suffolk coast, in a place known for its farmland, nature reserves and the fastest coastal erosion in Europe. By exploring how climate change and social change are already affecting this agriculturally important...
On Gallows Down: Place, Protest and Belonging
Chester, Nicola
Paper Book
"It's ever so good. Political, passionate & personal."--Robert Macfarlane (via Twitter), author of Underland Part nature writing, part memoir, On Gallows Down is an essential, unforgettable read for fans of Helen Macdonald, Terry Tempest Williams, and Robin Wall Kimmerer. ...
12 birds to save your life : nature's lessons in happiness
Corbett, Charlie
Paper Book
Recognising his perspective on life was slipping following his mother's untimely death, Charlie turned to the rhythms of the natural world for comfort and solace - in particular its birds. He found that through reconnecting with the wildlife all around him, the grief that once felt insurmountable he...
The Heeding
Cowen, Rob
Paper Book
A year of looking, listening and noticing across four unique seasons and thirty-five beautifully illustrated poems.  The world changed in 2020. Gradually at first, then quickly and irreversibly, the patterns by which we once lived altered completely. 
Thin places : a natural history of healing and home
Dochartaigh, Kerri ní
Paper Book
An Indie Next Selection for April 2022 An Indies Introduce Selection for Winter/Spring 2022 A Junior Library Guild Selection Both a celebration of the natural world and a memoir of one family's experience during the Troubles...
The new climate war : the fight to take back our planet
Mann, Michael
CD
Uprooting: From The Caribbean To The Countryside - Finding Home In An English Country Garden
Farrell, Marchelle.
Paper Book
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE A COUNTRYFILE CHRISTMAS GIFT BOOK What is home? It's a question that has troubled Marchelle Farrell for her entire life. A longed-for career in psychiatry saw her leave behind the pristine beaches and...
Time on rock : a climber's route into the mountains
Fleming, Anna
Paper Book
In Time on Rock Anna Fleming charts two parallel journeys: learning the craft of traditional rock climbing, and the new developing appreciation of the natural world it brings her. Through the story of her progress from terrified beginner to confident lead climber, she shows us how placing...
Islands of Abandonment: Life in the Post-Human Landscape
Flyn, Cal.
Paper Book
THE SUNDAY TIMES' BESTSELLER AND SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT BOOK OF THE YEAR WINNER OF THE SUNDAY TIMES YOUNG WRITER OF THE YEAR AWARD SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT CONSERVATION AWARD SHORTLISTED FOR THE...
What if we stopped pretending?
Franzen, Jonathan
Paper Book
The climate crisis is here. Our chance to stop it has come and gone, but this doesn't have to mean the world is ending. 'If you care about the planet, and about the people and animals who live on it, there are two ways to think about this. You can keep on hoping that catastrophe is...
Fathoms : the world in the whale
Giggs, Rebecca
Paper Book
Winner of the 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction * Finalist for the 2020 Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction * Finalist for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award A "delving, haunted, and poetic debut" (The New York Times Book Review) about the...
Silent Earth : averting the insect apocalypse
Goulson, Dave
Paper Book
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER **SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE 2022** We have to learn to live as part of nature, not apart from it. And the first step is to start looking after the insects, the little creatures that make our shared world go round....
Shadowlands : A Journey Through Lost Britain
Green, Matthew.
Paper Book
The untold story of the hidden places across Britain that have slipped through the fingers of history.
Otherlands : a world in the making
Halliday, Thomas, (Paleobiologist)
Paper Book
This is the past as we've never seen it before. Otherlands is an epic, exhilarating journey into deep time, showing us the Earth as it used to exist, and the worlds that were here before ours. Travelling back in time to the dawn of complex life, and across all seven continents,...
Leila and the Blue Fox
Hargrave, Kiran Millwood.
Paper Book
*Winner of the 2023 Wainwright Prize for Children's Writing on Nature & Conservation!* 'A captivating tale that glistens with wonder. Leila and Fox will always have a home in my heart' Sophie Anderson 'This is an extraordinary book - wild and beautiful and...
Net zero : how we stop causing climate change
Helm, Dieter
Paper Book
What can we really do about the climate emergency?    The inconvenient truth is that we are causing the climate crisis with our carbon intensive lifestyles and that fixing - or even just slowing - it will affect all of us. But it can be done. In Net...
The women who saved the English countryside
Kelly, Matthew
Paper Book
A vibrant history of English landscape preservation over the last 150 years, told through the lives of four remarkable women   In Britain today, a mosaic of regulations protects the natural environment and guarantees public access to green spaces. But this was...
Twitch
Leonard, M. G.
Paper Book
"Twitch has three pet chickens, four pigeons, swallows nesting in his bedroom and a passion for birdwatching. On the first day of the summer holidays, he arrives at his secret hide to find police everywhere. A convicted robber has broken out of prison and is hiding in Aves Wood. Can Twitch use his...
Meadowland : the private life of an English field
Lewis-Stempel, John
Paper Book
What really goes on in the long grass? Meadowland gives an unique and intimate account of an English meadow's life from January to December, together with its biography. In exquisite prose, John Lewis-Stempel records the passage of the seasons from cowslips in spring to the hay...
Where poppies blow : the British soldier, nature, the Great War
Lewis-Stempel, John
Paper Book
The instant
Liptrot, Amy
Paper Book
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR NATURE WRITING 'I loved this book' Raynor Winn, author of The Salt Path 'Utterly absorbing' Lucy Jones, author of Losing Eden Wishing to leave behind the quiet isolation of her Orkney...
The outrun
Liptrot, Amy
Paper Book
THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER WINNER OF THE 2017 PEN ACKERLEY PRIZE WINNER OF THE 2016 WAINWRIGHT PRIZE SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2017 ONDAATJE PRIZE SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2016 WELLCOME PRIZE At the age of thirty, Amy Liptrot...
Much ado about mothing : a year intoxicated by Britain's rare and remarkable moths
Lowen, James
Paper Book
This book narrates a year­-long quest to see Britain's rarest and most remarkable moths. This book coaxes moths out from the darkness and into the daylight; Much Ado About Moth-ing reveals that moths are so much more attractive, approachable and astonishing than...
Vesper flights : new and collected essays
Macdonald, Helen
Paper Book
*A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE GUARDIAN, FINANCIAL TIMES, DAILY TELEGRAPH, INDEPENDENT, BBC SCIENCE FOCUS MAGAZINE AND TIME MAGAZINE* *A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER* *A RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK* ...
Landmarks
Macfarlane, Robert
Paper Book
Words are grained into our landscapes, and landscapes are grained into our words. Landmarks is about the power of language to shape our sense of place. It is a field guide to the literature of nature, and a glossary containing thousands of remarkable words used in England, Scotland, Ireland...
The lost words : a spell book
Macfarlane, Robert
Paper Book
All over the country, there are words disappearing from children's lives. Words like Dandelion, Otter, Bramble, Acorn and Lark represent the natural world of childhood, a rich landscape of discovery and imagination that is fading from children's minds. The Lost Words stands...
Underland : a deep time journey
Macfarlane, Robert
Paper Book
'Into the underland we have long placed that which we fear and wish to lose, and that which we love and wish to save...' From the vast underground mycelial networks by which trees communicate to the ice-blue depths of glacial moulins, and from North Yorkshire to the Lofoten...
The wild places
Macfarlane, Robert
Paper Book
From the author of The Old Ways and Underland, an "eloquent (and compulsively readable) reminder that, though we're laying waste the world, nature still holds sway over much of the earth's surface." --Bill McKibben Winner of the Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain...
Late light
Malay, Michael
Paper Book
A love letter to the English countryside and some of the creatures which populate it, set against the backdrop of the author's own journey of discovery, as a new arrival to the UK
Diary of a young naturalist
McAnulty, Dara
Paper Book
Diary of a Young Naturalistchronicles the turning of 15-year-old Dara McAnulty's world. From spring and through a year in his home patch in Northern Ireland, Dara spent the seasons writing. These vivid, evocative and moving diary entries about his connection to wildlife and the way he sees...
The insect crisis : the fall of the tiny empires that run the world
Milman, Oliver
Paper Book
How would we live if insects no longer existed?
The sea is not made of water : life between the tides
Nicolson, Adam
Paper Book
LONGLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE 2022 'A remarkable and powerful book, the rarest of things ... Nicolson is unique as a writer ... I loved it' EDMUND DE WAAL Few places are as familiar as the shore - and few as full of mystery and surprise.
Into the tangled bank : in which our author ventures outdoors to consider the British in nature
Parikian, Lev
Paper Book
Lev Parikian is on a journey to discover the quirks, habits and foibles of how the British experience nature. Open a window, hear the birds calling and join him.---------It's often said that the British are a nation of nature lovers; but what does that really mean?Lev Parikian sets out to explore...
The treeline : the last forest and the future of life on earth
Rawlence, Ben
Paper Book
Winner of the 2023 Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism "Original and readable." ―Financial Times' Best Environmental Books of 2022 "Superb, inspiring." ―Winner, National Academies of Science Schmidt Awards for Excellence in...
English pastoral : an inheritance
Rebanks, James
Paper Book
As a boy, James Rebanks's grandfather taught him to work the land the old way. Their family farm in the Lake District hills was part of an ancient landscape- a patchwork of crops and meadows, of pastures grazed with livestock, and hedgerows teeming with wildlife. And yet, by the time James inherited...
The reindeer chronicles : and other inspiring stories of working with nature to heal the Earth
Schwartz, Judith D.
Paper Book
"Compelling, Fascinating, sometimes unexpectedly moving, this vitally important book is, above all, a springboard for hope and transformation."--Isabella Tree "A lucid and compelling look at the global movement of ecological rehabilitation."-- The Boston Globe In a time of...
I belong here : a journey along the backbone of Britain
Sethi, Anita
Paper Book
One woman's journey of reclamation through natural landscapes as she contemplates identity and womanhood, nature, place and belonging. Anita Sethi was on a journey through Northern England in Summer 2019 when she became the victim of a racially motivated hate crime. The crime...
Entangled Life : How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds and Shape Our Futures - The Illustrated Edition
Sheldrake, Merlin.
Paper Book
The smash-hit Sunday Times bestseller now illustrated with over 100 spectacular full-colour images, showcasing this wondrous and wildly various lifeform as never before 'Dazzling, vibrant, vision-changing' Robert Macfarlane Winner of the Royal...
The lost rainforests of Britain
Shrubsole, Guy
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR CONSERVATION 2023 The Sunday Times Science Book of the Year As seen on Countryfile 'If anyone was born to save Britain's rainforests, it was Guy Shrubsole' Sunday Times Shortlisted for...
Who Owns England?: How We Lost Our Land, and How to Take It Back
Shrubsole, Guy
Paper Book
'A formidable, brave and important book' Robert Macfarlane Who owns England? Behind this simple question lies this country's oldest and best-kept secret. This is the history of how England's elite came to own our land, and an inspiring manifesto...
The summer we turned green
Sutcliffe, William
Paper Book
Shortlisted for the Laugh Out Loud Book Awards 2023! A fresh, funny, heartfelt look at this generation's must-win battle: one earth, one chance. It's the summer holidays, and thirteen-year-old Luke's life has been turned upside down. First his older...
Climate change is racist : race, privilege and the struggle for climate justice
Williams, Jeremy
CD
The salt path
Winn, Raynor
Paper Book
The story of the couple who lost everything and embarked on a journey, not of escape, but salvation. Just days after Raynor learns that Moth, her husband of 32 years, is terminally ill, the couple lose their home and their livelihood. With nothing left and little time, they make...
The hidden life of trees : what they feel, how they communicate : discoveries from a secret world
Wohlleben, Peter
Paper Book
"Opening this book, you are about to enter a wonderland." Tim Flannery, author of Atmosphere of Hope and The Weather Makers "Charming, provocative, fascinating." David George Haskell, author of The Forest Unseen, Pulitzer finalist

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