Wainwright Prizes for nature, conservation writing winners

In the UK, the winners of the Wainwright Prizes for nature and conservation writing have been announced, reports the Bookseller.

James Rebanks won the nature category for English Pastoral (Allen Lane), which explores ‘how rural landscapes around the world have been brought close to collapse, and the age-old rhythms of work, weather, community and wild things are being lost’.

Chair of the nature writing judges Julia Bradbury said Rebanks’s ‘message of respect for the old ways and understanding of the complexities of farming for the future make this a really important book’. ‘And it’s all couched in beautiful prose,’ said Bradbury. ‘The writing is accessible, heartfelt, and poignant and it conveys a message of achievable change.’

Merlin Sheldrake won the conservation award for Entangled Life (Bodley Head), which looks at the hidden world of fungi—‘a web of connections, interactions and communication that changes the way we need to look at life, the planet and ourselves’.

Conservation panel chair Charlotte Smith said Sheldrake’s book ‘blew us away’. “[It’s] astonishing to find a book which after reading, forced us to think about our world view of conservation every day,’ Smith said. ‘It contains extraordinary descriptions of how extraordinary nature is, and the implications around soil carbon and fungi as a plastic replacement are huge.’

Category: International news