The Wainwright Prize surprise

 

Back in 2021 I challenged myself to read as many of the Wainwright Prize nominated books as I could. I really enjoyed doing this and discovering lots of new nature writing books and authors. While not something I've challenged myself to do again I do always look out for the long and short lists for all categories and see if I can fit any of the books into my reading plans.

The 2026 Longlists can be found here: Longlist 2026 - Wainwright Prize and across the two adult categories I found that I'd read quite a few of the books without even trying to shadow!

The shortlist announcement reduced this number and sadly one of my top books from the longlist - Wild Pavements by Amanda Tuke didn't make the cut. Tuke writes columns in a couple of nature magazines that I read and I really like her approach to finding natural things to spot wherever you are, including urban areas. Wild Pavements lists walks and visits Tuke has made to our cities (focusing on London) and all the things you can spot there if you slow down and look around - something I certainly try to do when out and about.

The big surprise for me was when my reservation for Ghosts of the Farm by Nicola Chester arrived at the library and I discovered that the farm Chester focuses on an area of Berkshire where Mr Norfolkbookworm's family are from - and that some of his relatives would have had actually had farms very close to Miss White - the 'ghost' of the book's title.

When I mentioned I was reading the book on social media I started chatting to Nicola and it turns out that she does know Mr Norfolkbookworm's distant family and the area they farmed - a small world indeed.

Even without the surprise connection I really enjoyed the book - it mixed modern farming and country life really well with the details from the 1940s and gave a huge insight into the way things used to be done. The mix of understanding that modernisation was necessary but laments for what we've lost were well handled and balanced.

The winner of the prize will be announced in mid September and I have my fingers all crossed for Ghosts.

July Round Up

 

Another month gone and we're well over half way through 2026 which doesn't seem possible.

July was a mixed month for reading - the end of our holiday and the post holiday slump hit hard, not helped by the heat and a selection of books for a project that I really struggled with.

Highlights were definitely the days I could get out and about with the camera, especially the day my nephew (Kentishbookboy for long term readers) and I had in London. He is about to start photography A level and had a summer project to work on, so we spent the morning in various buildings and locations around the city looking and light, shape, and form before heading to the beautifully airconditioned National Theatre to see War Horse. When the show was last on stage KBB was too young to see it so I was really pleased to see it back on in London, and on the stage it was initially written for. We were both blown away by it and hopefully this won't be the last day we have in London before he is too grown up to want a day out with his aunt...

Bookwise I got through a fair number of books and visited Greece, Japan, Finland, France (twice), Italy, Saudi Arabia, and Slovakia - the ones that were new to me being Slovakia and Saudi Arabia, I also got to tick off Idaho and Quebec as new States/Provinces.

Our Reading Around the World group met on Bastille Day to (appropriately) look at books in/from France. The choices and discussion was great, not least because several of us picked books by the same author - although all different titles - so we could look at how the writing styles change, common themes, and suggestions of other titles to try if the initial one didn't hit the mark!

I'll be missing the next session and my friend/sometime book group attendee is leading it - they'll be looking at Scottish books and the joke is that A chose this because she doesn't have a passport!

My top reads of the month were Victoria Hislop's The Wine-Dark Sea (not out until Sept so review/thoughts then), Louise Penny's Miss Wolcott's Ghost, and Annie Ernaux's A Man's Place. No real stinkers (that I can talk about) but a very average selection on the whole.

My Read the World Map as of end of July - it doesn't look hugely different as many of the books have been from smaller countries!