The Wainwright Prize is a literary prize awarded annually for the best works of nature, conservation, and environmental writing. Beginning in 2025 there were six categories: Nature Writing, Conservation Writing, Illustrative Books, Children's Fiction, Children's Non-Fiction, and Children's Picture Books. Each has separate longlists and judging panels. Category winners become eligible to win the overall prizes, the Wainwright Prize Book of the Year and the Wainwright Children's Prize Book of the Year. Nominations are restricted to books published in the UK.
History The prize celebrates the legacy of British guidebook writer Alfred Wainwright. It was established in 2013 by Frances Lincoln Publishers and The Wainwright Society, in association with the National Trust. Originally the prize was sponsored by Thwaites Brewery, who produced a beer called Wainwright Ale and was later sponsored by Marston's Brewery, who took over Thwaites' production of Wainwright Golden Beer, and thus the prize was sometimes referred to as The Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize.
In 2020 the prize was no longer sponsored, but was supported by an anonymous benefactor and was "in association with the National Trust". Also in 2020 the prize was split into the Wainwright Prize for UK Nature Writing and the Wainwright Prize for Writing on Global Conservation, with separate longlists and judging panels. In 2021 the Kendal papermakers James Cropper plc became the prize's "headline sponsors" in a three-year agreement. From 2022 until 2024, the prizes were known as the James Cropper Wainwright Prizes. A prize for writing for children was introduced in 2022, with the three prizes newly titled the James Cropper Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing, the James Cropper Wainwright Prize for Writing on Conservation and the James Cropper Wainwright Prize for Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation.
In 2024 it was announced that the prize would be seeking new sponsorship. the prize's partners were: the RSPB, the Wainwright Society, The Wildlife Trusts, the National Trust, Frances Lincoln, World Book Day, National Geographic Kids, and marketing company Agile. In 2026 there were four additional partners: Responsible Travel, the National Literacy Trust, National Book Tokens and Plantlife.
The prize was first awarded in 2014 to Hugh Thomson for his The Green Road into the Trees: A Walk Through England. The winner received a cheque for £5,000. With the introduction of two prizes in 2020 the prize money was shared between the two winners, and in 2022 it was increased to £7,500 to be shared between the three winners. With the prize having been restructured in 2025, the two overall winners received £2,500, while each other category winner received £500, for a total of £7,000 prize money.
Winners and shortlisted titles In the following tables, the years correspond to the date of the ceremony, rather than when the book was first published. Entries with a blue background and an asterisk (*) next to the writer's name have won the award; those with a pale background are the other nominees on the shortlist.
* Winners
2014–2019: One prize
YearAuthorBookPublisherRef.2014 * Windmill Walking Home Faber & Faber Badgerlands Granta Under Another Sky Vintage Penguin Field Notes from a Hidden City Granta 2015 * Meadowland Penguin Running Free: A Runner's Journey Back to Nature Yellow Jersey Faber & Faber Claxton: Field Notes from a Small Planet Vintage H is for Hawk Vintage Rising Ground: A Search for the Spirit of Place Granta 2016 * Canongate Common Ground Windmill Landmarks Penguin John Murray Press Bloomsbury Penguin 2017 * Weidenfeld and Nicolson Love of Country Granta William Collins Black Swan Wild Kingdom Vintage Black Swan Hodder & Stoughton 2018 * William Collins Headline Hidden Nature Hodder & Stoughton Outskirts Hodder & Stoughton Canongate and Jackie Morris Hamish Hamilton Penguin 2019 * Underland Hamish Hamilton Time Song Vintage Sandstone Our Place Vintage Thinking on My Feet Octopus Books Wilding Picador Out of the Woods Weidenfeld and Nicolson
2020–2021: Two prizes
YearAuthorBookPublisherRef. 2020:GlobalConservation * Rebirding: Restoring Britain's Wildlife Pelagic Publishing What We Need to Do Now Profile Books Irreplaceable Penguin Life Changing: How Humans Are Altering Life on Earth Bloomsbury Sigma Working With Nature Profile Books Sitopia: How Food Can Save the World Vintage 2020:UKNatureWriting * Diary of a Young Naturalist Ebury Press Dark, Salt, Clear: Life in a Cornish Fishing Town Bloomsbury William Collins Native: Life in a Vanishing Landscape Birlinn General On the Red Hill Windmill Wanderland: A Search for Magic in the Landscape Bloomsbury Wildlife Dancing with Bees: A Journey Back to Nature Chelsea Green 2021:GlobalConservation * Entangled Life Penguin Random House A Life on Our Planet Ebury Press Islands of Abandonment William Collins Fathoms: The World in the Whale Scribe Publications Net Zero: How We Stop Causing Climate Change William Collins Under a White Sky Vintage 2021:UKNatureWriting * English Pastoral: An Inheritance Penguin The Screaming Sky Little Toller Books Featherhood Orion Seed to Dust Vintage Thin Places Canongate I Belong Here Bloomsbury Wildlife The Wild Silence Penguin
2022–2024: Addition of a children's prize
YearAuthorBookPublisherRef. 2022:NatureWriting * Goshawk Summer: A New Forest Season Unlike Any Other Elliott & Thompson On Gallows Down: Place, Protest and Belonging Chelsea Green Shadowlands: A Journey Through Lost Britain Faber & Faber The Instant Canongate Time on Rock: A Climber's Route into the Mountains Canongate Otherlands: A World in the Making Allen Lane 2022:Writing onConservation * Eating to Extinction: The World's Rarest Foods and Why We Need to Save Them Jonathan Cape Our Biggest Experiment: A History of the Climate Crisis Bloomsbury Sigma Silent Earth: Averting the Insect Apocalypse Vintage The Insect Crisis: The Fall of the Tiny Empires That Run the World Atlantic Books Regenesis: Feeding the World Without Devouring the Planet Allen Lane The Treeline: The Last Forest and the Future of Life on Earth Jonathan Cape Wild Fell: Fighting for Nature on a Lake District Hill Farm Doubleday 2022: Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation Illustrated by Tom Sears* The Biggest Footprint: Eight Billion Humans. One Clumsy Giant Canongate Illustrated by Angela Harding October, October Bloomsbury Children's Books Illustrated by Jenni Desmond One World: 24 Hours on Planet Earth Walker Books Illustrated by Tom de Freston Julia and the Shark Orion Children's Books Illustrated by Angela Harding By Rowan and Yew Chicken House Illustrated by Kaja Kajfež Around the World in 80 Trees Welbeck Illustrated by Barry Falls Wild Child: A Journey Through Nature Macmillan Children's Books 2023:NatureWriting * The Flow: Rivers, Water and Wildness Bloomsbury Twelve Words for Moss Allen Lane Ten Birds That Changed the World Faber Translated by Caroline Waight A Line in the World: A Year on the North Sea Coast Pushkin Illustrated by Talya Baldwin The Golden Mole: And Other Living Treasure Faber Belonging: Natural Histories of Place, Identity and Home Canongate 2023:Writing onConservation * The Lost Rainforests of Britain William Collins Beastly: A New History of Animals and Us Canongate Rewilding the Sea: How to Save Our Oceans Ebury Rooted: How Regenerative Farming Can Change the World Viking and Tim Kendall Black Ops and Beaver Bombing: Adventures with Britain's Wild Mammals Oneworld Nomad Century: How to Survive the Climate Upheaval Allen Lane 2023: Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation Illustrated by Tom de Freston* Leila and the Blue Fox Chicken House Illustrated by Emily Sutton Protecting the Planet: The Season of Giraffes Walker Books Blobfish Walker Books Spark Walker Books Illustrated by Barry Falls A Wild Child's Book of Birds Macmillan Children's Books Illustrated by Sarah Massini Grandpa and the Kingfisher Nosy Crow 2024:NatureWriting * Late Light: The Secret Wonders of a Disappearing World Manila Press, Bonnier Books Uprooting: From the Caribbean to the Countryside Canongate Bothy: In Search of Simple Shelter William Collins Local: A Search for Nearby Nature and Wildness Faber Dispersals: On Plants, Borders and Belonging Hamish Hamilton The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise Picador Rural: The Lives of the Working Class Countryside William Collins 2024:Writing onConservation * Blue Machine: How the Ocean Shapes Our World Torva, Transworld Wasteland: The Dirty Truth About What We Throw Away, Where It Goes, and Why It Matters Simon & Schuster Groundbreakers: The Return of Britain's Wild Boar Bloomsbury Wildlife It's Not Just You: How to Navigate Eco-Anxiety and the Climate Crisis Simon & Schuster, Gallery Books Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World Sceptre, Hodder & Stoughton Nature's Ghosts: The World We Lost and How to Bring it Back HarperNorth/ HarperCollins 2024:Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation * Foxlight Bloomsbury Children's The Observologist Gecko Press and Andrew DonkinIllustrated by Giovanni Rigano Global Hodder Children's Books Illustrated by Jackie Morris Skrimsli Firefly Press Illustrated by Sara Boccaccini Meadows Fly: A Child's Guide to Birds and Where to Spot Them Magic Cat Publishing Geomancer: In the Shadow of the Wolf Queen Orion Children's Books Impossible Creatures Bloomsbury Children's Illustrated by Angela Harding Wilding: How to Bring Wildlife Back Macmillan Children's Books
2025–: Six prize categories In 2025, the Wainwright Prize was restructured to award books across six categories, each falling under one of two overall Prizes: the Wainwright Prize Book of the Year and the Wainwright Children's Prize Book of the Year. Only winners in individual categories are eligible to win the overall prizes. In the following table, a blue background intes a category winner, a green background indicates an overall winner and a pale background indicates a shortlisted nominee.
Submissions for the 2025 prizes closed on 6 March 2025. The longlists were announced in July 2025; the shortlists were announced on 5 August and the winners were announced on 10 September.
The 2026 prizes uses the same six categories. Submissions closed on 27 February 2026, and the winners were announced on 17 September 2026.
* Category winners ‡ Overall winners