Richard Jefferies Award Shortlist for 2025 Nominations

 The Richard Jefferies Award 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.



Congratulations to the following 2025 nature-writing books and their authors that have been shortlisted for the latest Richard Jefferies Award:

·         Ghosts of the Farm by Nicola Chester, published by Chelsea Green Publishing

·         A Wilding Year by Hannah Dale, published by Batsford

·         Peatlands by Alys Fowler, published by Hodder & Stoughton

·         My Head for a Tree by Martin Goodman, published by Profile Books

·         The Lost Elms by Mandy Haggith, published by Wildfire (Headline)

·         Of Thorn & Briar by Paul Lamb, published by Simon & Schuster


The award was first introduced in 2015 by the Richard Jefferies Society and then sponsored by the White Horse Bookshop, Marlborough [2]. 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), Wild Fell by Lee Schofield (2022) Late Light by Michael Malay (2023) and Nature's Ghosts by Sophie Yeo (2024).

The judging panel will meet in the early summer to agree and announce the overall winner of the £1000 prize. 

Notes 

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

[2] The White Horse Bookshop first opened its doors in 1943 and has stood on its present site - a 16th century townhouse in Marlborough, Wiltshire - since 1949: