Amy Liptrot named winner of The Wainwright Golden Beer Prize 2016

At a special bbc Countryfile Live event in Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire; Publisher Frances Lincoln announced that Amy Liptrot’s ‘The Outrun’ had bagged the £5,000 prize that celebrates UK nature and travel writing

Now in its third year, the Wainwright Golden Beer Prize awards £5,000 annually to the work that best reflects renowned nature writer Alfred Wainwright’s core values of celebrating the great British outdoors.

The Outrun follows the author’s return to Orkney after more than a decade away. Now thirty, she finds herself washed up back home, standing on an unstable cliff edge, trying to come to terms with all that happened to her in London. Spending early mornings swimming in the bracingly cold sea, and the days and nights tracking Orkney’s wildlife, she makes the slow journey towards redemption.

The Judging panel included amongst others; chair Dame Fiona Reynolds; Julia Bradbury, TV presenter; Sally Palmer, publisher of National Trust Magazine; Bill Lyons. Reynold’s praised all the entries, saying, “We felt bowled over by the quality this year and this year’s shortlist is the best yet.”

The short list included Rob Cowen’s ‘Common Ground’, ‘The Fish Ladder’ by Katharine Norbury and Michael McCarthy’s moving memoir of childhood trauma that offers a rallying cry for protecting our environment in ‘The Moth Snowstorm’. Nevertheless, The Outrun was a unanimous choice of the judges, despite an extraordinarily strong shortlist that spotlighted the continued resurgence of nature and travel writing

Further details can be found at www.wainwrightprize.com