Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing, Conservation Writing and Illustrative Books - Shortlist 2025

The Wainwright Prizes are the UK’s foremost awards celebrating nature, conservation, and environmental writing. Named in honour of Alfred Wainwright, writer, walker, and champion of the outdoors, the prizes were established in 2013 to spotlight the growing genre of nature writing and inspire readers to connect more deeply with the natural world. https://wainwrightprize.com/ (books will be added to list as books arrive)

Updated August 19, 2025
K
Kōtui New Plymouth Libraries
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INTERTIDAL : the hidden world between land and sea
AVES, YUVAN.
Paper Book
A deep observation of coast and wetland, climate and self, by a leading Indian ecological activist.
Ingrained: The making of a craftsman
Robinson, Callum.
Paper Book
Ingrained is a love letter to trees, timber and craftsmanship - and to finding your own voice. The eldest son of a Master Woodworker, Callum Robinson spent his childhood surrounded by wood and trees, absorbing craft lessons in his father's workshop, playing amongst the sycamore, oak and...
Our oaken bones : reviving a family, a farm and Britain's ancient rainforests
Hanbury-Tenison, Merlin
Paper Book
An enormously moving and inspiring story about war, trauma, nature and rebirth, written with infectious passion and unsparing honesty. I loved it. - DOMINIC SANDBROOK Scholarly, wise, funny, charming, terrifying and thrilling... I adored it all, every page. - JOANNA LUMLEY<...
Climate Injustice: Why We Need to Fight Global Inequality to Combat Climate Change
Otto, Friederike.
Paper Book
"I can't recommend this book highly enough. It will change how you think about the most important story of our time."--JEFF GOODELL, New York Times bestselling author of The Heat Will Kill You First From one of the world's most celebrated thinkers on climate...
Raising Hare: The heart-warming true story of an unlikely friendship
Dalton, Chloe.
Paper Book
THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERWINNER OF THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR NATURE WRITING SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION, BOOKS ARE MY BAG READERS AWARD, HATCHARDS AND BIOGRAPHERS' CLUB FIRST BIOGRAPHY PRIZEA BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR THE HAY FESTIVAL, SUNDAY TIMES, THE...
The accidental garden : gardens, wilderness and the space in between
Mabey, Richard
Paper Book
The godfather of British nature writing reflects on the conflict between cultivation and autonomous nature
Is A River Alive?
Macfarlane, Robert.
Paper Book
At its heart is a single, transformative idea- that rivers are not mere matter for human use, but living beings - who should be recognized as such in both imagination and law. Inspired by the activists, artists and lawmakers of the young 'Rights of Nature' movement, Macfarlane takes the reader on an...
A training school for elephants
Roberts, Sophy
Paper Book
In 1879, King Leopold II of Belgium launched an ambitious plan to plunder Africa's resources. The key to cracking open the continent, or so he thought, was its elephants - if only he could train them. And so he commissioned the charismatic Irish adventurer Frederick Carter to ship four tamed...
The Lie of the Land: Who Really Cares for the Countryside?
Shrubsole, Guy.
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR CONSERVATION 2025 A WATERSTONES AND GUARDIAN BEST BOOK OF 2024 'Both dynamite and medicine' AMY-JANE BEER 'Timely and rousing' THE TIMES ________________________________ The lie of the land: that Britain's...
What the wild sea can be : the future of the world's ocean
Scales, Helen
Paper Book
An impassioned examination of the existential threats to the world's ocean and cautious optimism for the abundant life within it.
The possibility of tenderness : a Jamaican memoir of plants and dreams
Allen-Paisant, Jason
Paper Book
The Possibility of Tenderness is a personal history narrated through the lens of the 'grung' and plants. It's also a people's history of the land, a family saga, an archival detective story through time. It's the migration tale of a young scholar who arrives in Britain from rural Jamaica to...
Nature's Genius: Evolution's Lessons for a Changing Planet
Farrier, David.
Paper Book
This is the remarkable and mind-expanding story of how we shape the lives of animals and plants - and how they shape us - by professor David Farrier For nearly four billion years, life on Earth has found new ways to adapt, reproduce and thrive, taking on new forms to...
Red Pockets: An Offering
Mah, Alice.
Paper Book
'Part of me knew what the hungry ghosts wanted all along, what they still want. It is not vengeance. No, they want something else, but we refuse to listen. They want us to face up to our broken obligations.' Every spring during the Qingming Festival, people return to their...
Insectopolis : a natural history
Kuper, Peter
Paper Book
Shortlisted for the 2025 Wainwright Prize for Illustrative Books Award-winning cartoonist Peter Kuper transports readers through the 400-million-year history of insects and the remarkable entomologists who have studied them. This visually immersive work of graphic...

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