Wainwright Prize 2019

On Sunday I finished the last of the 13 books on this year’s Wainwright Prize Longlist. There are some cracking books on there covering subjects as diverse as gulls to moles, wild swimming and gipsy parking places. London features twice with sexual adventures in Epping Forrest and ghost trees in Poplar and there are two books on what is happening to our wildlife and the possibilities of what might happen if we change. We head under the sea to Doggerland and deep beneath the surface in Underland. Unusually there is a fiction book on the longlist, however, Lanny is a disturbing read but closely linked to the pagan landscape that we can still see if we look. Lastly, there is a book on the pleasures of walking and another about the loss of coastal landscape on the east coast of Britain.

There were a few surprises on this list, and I think that it was missing some that I read and really enjoyed last year, for example, Under the Rock and The Pull of the River to name but two.

I do not envy the judges selecting the shortlist but it is announced this morning. There is an event tonight at Waterstones Picadilly and I am going to be there. I am really looking forward to meeting the authors and will be taking a small pile of books to be signed too.

Links to all of my reviews are below:

Underland by Robert Macfarlane

Wilding: The Return Of Nature To A British Farm by Isabella Tree

Lanny by Max Porter

Landfill by Tim Dee

Time Song: Searching For Doggerland by Julia Blackburn

Our Place: Can We Save Britain’s Wildlife Before It Is Too Late? by Mark Cocker

How To Catch A Mole And Find Yourself In Nature by Marc Hamer

The Stopping Places: A Journey Through Gypsy Britain by Damian Le Bas

Thinking On My Feet by Kate Humble

Wild Woman Swimming by Lynne Roper

Out of the Woods by Luke Turner