THE BEST N AT U R E & TRAVEL WRITING sh or tlis ted books
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Welcome to the Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize
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’m delighted to be chairing the judging panel for the Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize this year, it really is a thought-provoking prize. The books that my fellow judges and I have long and shortlisted capture many different aspects of the natural world whilst displaying the strength and variety of nature writing in the UK today. I’m excited that through this prize, we are helping to celebrate these books and the natural landscapes and creatures that have inspired them. Now in its fourth year, the Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize, is awarded annually to the book which most successfully reflects the ethos of renowned nature writer Alfred Wainwright’s work, to inspire readers to explore the outdoors and to nurture a respect for the natural world.
Within the pages of this magazine you will find a wonderful selection of books, which have been long and shortlisted for the award.We hope you are able to enjoy as many of the selected books as you can, look out for the Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize logo in bookshops, libraries and online.
You can also join us at BBC Countryfile Live on 3rd August at Blenheim Palace to see the Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize 2017 presented to this year’s winner.
Julia Bradbury Chair of Judges
wainwrightprize.com @wainwrightprize #wainwrightprize
S H O R T L I S T E D
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Love of Country
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Photo: Luke Wintour
Madeleine Bunting
Madeleine Bunting was for many years a columnist for the Guardian. Born in North Yorkshire, Bunting read History at Cambridge and Politics at Harvard. She is the author of: The Model Occupation:The Channel Islands under German Rule, 1940-45;Willing Slaves: How the Overwork Culture is Ruling Our Lives and The Plot: A Biography of an English Acre, which won the Portico Prize and was shortlisted for the Ondaatje Prize.
n the outer edge of the British Isles and facing the Atlantic Ocean, the Hebrides form part of Europe’s boundary. Because of their unique position in the Atlantic archipelago, they have been at the centre of a network of ancient shipping routes, which has led to a remarkable history of cultures colliding and merging. Over six years, Madeleine Bunting travelled to the Hebrides, exploring their landscapes, histories and magnetic pull. Bunting considers the extent of the islands’ influence beyond their shores, finding that their history of dispossession and migration has been central to the British imperial past. Perhaps more significant still is how their landscapes have been repeatedly used to imagine the British nation. P U B L I S H E D B Y G R A N TA B O O K S
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The January Man
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Christopher Somerville
he story of a year of walks that was inspired by a song, Dave Goulder’s ‘The January Man’. Month by month, season by season and region by region, Christopher Somerville walks the British Isles, following routes that continually bring his father to mind. As he travels he describes the history, wildlife, landscapes and people he encounters, down back lanes and old paths, in rain and fair weather, and illustrates how, on long-distance walks, we can come to an understanding of ourselves and our fellow walkers. P U B L I S H E D B Y T R A N S WO R L D
Christopher Somerville is the walking correspondent of The Times. He is one of Britain’s most respected and prolific travel writers, with thirty-six books, hundreds of newspaper articles and many TV and radio appearances to his name. He lives in Bristol.
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The Otters’ Tale
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Simon Cooper
Simon Cooper is one of the UK’s leading chalkstream conservationists. He lives and works on the English rivers, where otters are once again thriving.
tters are the most secretive yet also the most popular mammals – they are found in every county but are so rarely seen that they have been raised to mythical status.When Simon Cooper bought an abandoned water mill that straddles a small chalkstream in southern England, little did he know that he would come to share the mill with a family of wild otters. He developed an extraordinary close relationship with the family, which in turn gave him a unique insight into the life of these fascinating creatures. Cooper brings these beloved animals to life in all their wondrous complexity, revealing the previously hidden secrets of their lives in this beautifully told tale of the otter. PUBLISHED BY HARPERCOLLINS
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The Running Hare
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John Lewis-Stempel
raditional ploughland is disappearing. Seven cornfield flowers have become extinct in the last twenty years. Once abundant, the corn bunting and the lapwing are on the Red List. The corncrake is all but extinct in England. And the hare is running for its life. In an era of open-roofed factories and silent empty fields, The Running Hare tells the story of ploughland through the eyes of a farmer who husbanded a field in a natural, traditional way to create a place where our wild animals and plants can rest safe.
P U B L I S H E D B Y T R A N S WO R L D
John Lewis-Stempel is a writer and farmer. His many previous books include The Wild Life: A Year of Living on Wild Food, England:The Autobiography, Six Weeks:The Short and Gallant Life of the British Officer in the First World War and Meadowland, which won the Wainwright Prize in 2015. John writes for Country Life and won the BMSE Columnist of the Year Award in 2016. He lives on the borders of England and Wales with his wife and two children.
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The Wild Other
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Clover Stroud
lover Stroud’s idyllic childhood in rural England was shattered when a horrific riding accident left her mother permanently brain-damaged. Just sixteen, she embarked on a journey to find the sense of home that had been so savagely broken.Travelling from gypsy camps in Ireland, to the rodeos of west Texas and then to Russia’s war-torn Caucasus, Clover eventually found her way back to England’s lyrical Vale of the White Horse. The Wild Other is a grippingly honest account of love, loss, family and the healing strength of nature. Powerful and deeply emotional, this is the story of an extraordinary life lived at its fullest.
Photo: Paul Clarke
P U B L I S H E D B Y H O D D E R & S TO U G H TO N
Clover Stroud is a writer and journalist writing for the Daily Mail, Sunday Times, Daily Telegraph, and Conde Nast Traveller, among others. She lives in Oxfordshire with her husband and five children.
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Where Poppies Blow
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John Lewis-Stempel
John Lewis-Stempel is a writer and farmer. His many previous books include The Wild Life: A Year of Living on Wild Food, England:The Autobiography, Six Weeks:The Short and Gallant Life of the British Officer in the First World War and Meadowland, which won the Wainwright Prize in 2015. John writes for Country Life and won the BMSE Columnist of the Year Award in 2016. He lives on the borders of England and Wales with his wife and two children.
he unique story of the British soldiers of the Great War and their relationship with the animals and plants around them.This connection was of profound importance, because it goes a long way to explaining why they fought, and how they found the will to go on. At the most basic level, animals and birds provided interest to fill the blank hours in the trenches and billets. But perhaps more importantly, the ability of nature to endure, despite the bullets and blood, gave men a psychological, spiritual, even religious uplift. Animals and plants were also reminders of home. It is in this elemental relationship between man and nature that some of the highest, noblest aspirations of humanity in times of war can be found. PUBLISHED BY WEIDENFELD & NICOLSON
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Wild Kingdom
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Stephen Moss
he newspaper headlines tell us that Britain’s wildlife is in trouble. It’s not just rare creatures that are vanishing, hares and hedgehogs, skylarks and water voles, even the humble house sparrow, are in freefall. But there is also good news. Otters have returned to the River Tyne; there are now beavers on the River Otter; and peregrines have taken up residence in the heart of London. Stephen Moss travels the length and breadth of the UK, from the remote archipelago of St Kilda to our inner cities, to witness at first-hand how our wild creatures are faring and ask how we can bring back Britain’s wildlife. P U B L I S H E D B Y V I N TAG E
Stephen Moss is a naturalist, broadcaster, television producer and author. In a distinguished career at the BBC Natural History Unit his credits included Springwatch, Birds Britannia and The Nature of Britain. His books include A Bird in the Bush, A Sky Full of Starlings,The Bumper Book of Nature and Wild Hares and Hummingbirds.
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L O N G L I S T E D
A Sky Full of Birds
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Matt Merritt n A Sky Full of Birds, poet and nature writer Matt Merritt shares his passion for birdwatching by taking us to some of the great avian gatherings that occur around the British isles – from ravens in Anglesey and raptors on the Wirral, to Kent nightingales and Scottish capercallies. Lyrical, informative and entertaining, he shows how natural miracles can be found all around us, if only we know where to look for them.
Foxes Unearthed
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Lucy Jones ucy Jones investigates the truth about foxes in a media landscape that often carries complex agendas, holding perceived wisdom and myths up to the microscope of modern science. Exploring perceptions of the fox in folklore, literature and social history, Lucy also travels the length of Britain to find out first-hand why the animal is so ambiguously perceived in modern society.
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Fingers in the Sparkle Jar
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Chris Packham n unusual young boy, isolated by his obsessions and a loner at school, Chris Packham only felt at ease in the fields and woods. But when he stole a young kestrel, he was about to embark on a friendship that would teach him what it meant to love, and that would change him forever. Beautifully wrought, this coming-of-age memoir will be unlike any you've ever read.
Love, Madness, Fishing
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Dexter Petley n unsentimental memoir of growing up on the borders of Kent and Sussex in the 1960s and 70s, told through the author’s discovery of his passion for fishing. Peopled by extraordinary, vivid characters it’s also a hymn to a lost age, still within living memory.
The Nature of Autumn
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Jim Crumley n autumn nature stages some of its most enchantingly beautiful displays; yet it’s also a period for reflection, as the days shorten and winter’s chill approaches. Jim Crumley tells the story of the unfolding season, the wildlife and landscapes, painting an intimate – and deeply personal – portrait.
Sta n fo o r d s is proud to support The Wa ainwright Prize and congratulates the shortlisted authors.
London ĂŻ stanfords.co.uk ĂŻ Bristol
JUDGES FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE 2017 Julia Bradbury
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Photo: Sean Malyon
redited with revamping Sunday night prime time television and dubbed “Lady of the Lakes”, Julia Bradbury is one of the small screen’s most popular and versatile presenters. She has just completed filming a new walking series, Britain’s Best Walks, which will be shown on ITV and follows up last year’s successful Britain’s Best Walks with a View. Both are accompanied by a book, DVD and online resource The Outdoor Guide.
Sally Palmer
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Photo: National Trust Images/Arnhel de Serra
ally is an author, writer and editor of National Trust Magazine which, with a circulation of 2.3m, is the largest magazine in the UK. A rural upbringing in Devon surrounded by ponies, sheep and goats inspired a lifelong love of nature and the outdoors, and she has a particular affection for the windswept landscapes of Dartmoor.
Sarah Oliver
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Photo: Les Wilson
arah Oliver is a journalist with The Mail on Sunday where she’s a feature writer, occasional columnist and celebrity interviewer. She’s written for her living since she was a teenage cub reporter with a sharp pencil and a rackety old typewriter. Sarah grew up on the North Pennine moors and has since travelled to some of the remotest parts of the world on assignment. She has been under canvas in Iraq, Afghanistan and Borneo. Today she lives with her army officer husband and sons in Suffolk’s Stour Valley.
Matt Baker
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att started his TV career in 1999, when he joined Blue Peter. He now presents The One Show with Alex Jones. Matt was born in Durham where he grew up on his family’s sheep farm. His love of the countryside and animals made him the natural choice for fronting such shows as Crufts, One Man and His Dog, Summer Countryfile Diaries, Animal Rescue Live and Animal Rescue Squad for Five and the very popular Secret Britain series. He currently presents BBC One’s Sunday night show Countryfile and writes for the Countryfile magazine.
Eric Robson
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riter and broadcaster, Eric Robson has made programmes for BBC, ITV and Channel 4 for more than 40 years. For 20 years he’s been chairman of Gardeners’ Question Time on Radio 4. His books include Great Railway Journeys of the World, The Border Line and After Wainwright, a memoir of the years he worked with Britain’s most famous fell walker. His latest book, Abroad was published recently.
Peter Waine
eter Waine is a former chairman of CPRE, the P National Fruit Collection at
Brogdale and the Tree Council. He is co-founder of Hanson Green and has been on boards of public and private companies in addition to being a former visiting professor at both Warwick and Cass Business Schools. A former member of the International Cricket Council and a trustee of the Royal Opera House, Peter is author or co-author, of two business books, a business novel, a collection of poetry and of 22 Ideas That Saved The English Countryside.
Š Derry Brabbs
The Wainwright Society was formed in 2002 and now has over 2000 family members. The Society promotes Alfred Wainwright’s vision of introducing a wider audience to fellwalking and caring for the hills. Encounters with Wainwright is a new and important book published by the Society. This book, compiled and edited by David Johnson, Editor of Footsteps, the magazine of The Wainwright Society, is 240 pages long, in full colour and with over 250 photographs. It contains 120 stories of people who met or knew Alfred Wainwright. These range from very brief encounters to accounts from those who knew him over many years. Together they provide much new information and provide the reader with an opportunity to consider Wainwright afresh in the light of first-hand experience.
Encounters wit h Wainwright
compiled and edit ed by
David Johnson
All profits from this book will go to Animal Rescue Cumbria. Available from www.wainwright.org.uk/ encounters-with-wainwright www.wainwright.org.uk
BOOK FOUR : TH HE SOUTHERN FELLS WALKERS EDITION
ANNIVERSARY EDITION
Fully revised and updated by Clive Hutchby £13.99 flexibound ISBN 978-0-7112-3657-8
Reproduced from A. Wainwright’s original manuscript drawings £13.99 hardback ISBN 978-0-7112-2457-5
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A W A R D
L A S T
Y E A R ’ S
W I N N E R
The Outrun
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Photo: Lisa Swarna Khanna
Amy Liptrot
Amy Liptrot has published her work with various magazines, journals and blogs and she has written a regular column for Caught by the River out of which The Outrun has emerged. As well as writing for major newspapers including the Guardian and the Observer, Amy has worked as an artist's model, a trampolinist and in a shellfish factory. This is her first book.
hen Amy Liptrot returns to Orkney she is drawn back to the Outrun on the sheep farm where she grew up. Approaching the land that was once home, memories of her childhood merge with the recent events that have set her on this journey. As she grew up, she longed to leave this remote life. She moved to London and found herself in a hedonistic cycle. Unable to control her drinking, alcohol gradually took over. Now thirty, she finds herself washed up back home on Orkney, standing unstable at the cliff edge, trying to come to terms with what happened to her. The Outrun is a beautiful, inspiring book about living on the edge, about the pull between island and city, and about the ability of the sea, the land, the wind and the moon to restore life and renew hope. P U B L I S H E D B Y C A N O N G AT E
@wainwrightprize
Many thanks to the title sponsors:
Thank you to the judging panel:
The Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize is a literary award that celebrates the very best writing on the outdoors, nature and travel in the UK, created in memory of Alfred Wainwright, whose Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells are still available in lovingly reproduced form today.
Julia Bradbury Chair/TV presenter Matt Baker TV presenter Eric Robson Writer & broadcaster Sally Palmer The National Trust Magazine Sarah Oliver Journalist Peter Waine ex Chairman of the CPRE, businessman & author Thanks also to Laura Creyke and the public relations team at Mark Hutchinson Management
Thanks to National Trust for their support
Thanks to Stanfords for their support
The Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize is owned and created by Frances Lincoln Publishers Executive Director: Alastair Giles Designer: SteveWells Production Manager & design: Danielle Bowers
books
www.nationaltrustbooks.co.uk