2016 Winner:
The Outrun by Amy Liptrot
When Amy Liptrot returns to Orkney after more than a decade away, 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.
2016 Shortlist:
Common Ground by Rob Cowen
Immersive, evocative and powerful, Common Ground is a unique evocation of how, over the course of one year, Rob Cowen discovered a common – though extraordinary – square mile of wood, meadow, hedge and river on the edge of his northern town.
Landmarks by Robert Macfarlane
Landmarks is Robert Macfarlane’s joyous meditation on words, landscape and the relationship between the two. Words are grained into our landscapes, and landscapes are grained into our words.
The Fish Ladder by Katharine Norbury
Part travelogue, part memoir, this deeply moving story of self-discovery – told through journeys on foot along the glittering rivers of Britain – is nature writing at its finest and destined to be a classic of memoir.
The Moth Snowstorm by Michael McCarthy
Nature has many gifts for us, but perhaps the greatest of them all is joy; the intense delight we can take in the natural world, in its beauty, in the wonder it can offer us, in the peace it can provide.
The Shepherd’s Life by James Rebanks
Some people’s lives are entirely their own creations. James Rebanks’ isn’t. The first son of a shepherd, who was the first son of a shepherd himself, he and his family have lived and worked in and around the Lake District for generations. Their way of life is ordered by the seasons and the work they demand, and has been for hundreds of years.