Shortlist for Richard Jefferies Award for best nature writing published 2023

 The Richard Jefferies Award [1] is given annually to the author of the publication considered by the judging panel to be the most outstanding nature writing published in a given calendar year. The winning work must reflect the heritage and spirit of Richard Jefferies’ countryside books.

 The final shortlist for 2023 publications was announced today (in n0 particular order):

 ·         The Orchid Outlaw: On a Mission to Save Britain’s Rarest Flowers by Ben Jacob (John Murrays)

·         One Midsummer’s Day: Swifts and the Story of Life on Earth by Mark Cocker (Jonathan Cape)

·         Footprints in the Woods: The Secret Life of Forest and Riverbank by John Lister-Kaye (Canongate Books)

·         Across a Waking Land: A 1000-mile Walk through a British Spring by Roger Morgan Grenville ( Icon Books)

·         Late Light by Michael Malay (Manilla Press)

·         Windswept: Life, Nature and Deep Time in the Scottish Highlands by Annie Worsley (Harper Collins)

          

The award was first introduced in 2015 by the Richard Jefferies Society and then sponsored by the White Horse Bookshop, Marlborough. It has attracted an unprecedented number of nominations that grow each year reflecting the increasing quality of books dedicated to the natural world.

 Previous award winners are: Gods of the Morning by John Lister-Kaye (2015), The Wood for the Trees by Richard Fortey (2016) The Seabird's Cry by Adam Nicolson (2017), Wilding by Isabella Tree (2018); Rebirding by Benedict Macdonald (2019), Orchard by Benedict Macdonald and Nicholas Gates (2020), On Gallows Down by Nicola Chester (2021) and Wild Fell by Lee Schofield (2022).

 The judging panel will meet in the late spring to agree and announce the overall winner of the £1000 prize. The winner will be announced on 3rd May 2024. 

 Notes 

 [1] For more information about the Award and previous winners: http://www.richardjefferiesaward.org/