Lakeland Book of the Year

The Lakeland Book of the Year, also known as the Hunter Davies Lakeland Book of the Year[1] is an award given annually for a book "set in or featuring Cumbria in some way", and is named for the Lake District of north west England. It was founded by writer Hunter Davies in 1984 and is administered by Cumbria Tourism. The judges in 2020, for books published in 2019, were Hunter Davies, Eric Robson and Fiona Armstrong. The prizes are traditionally announced at a gala lunch in June, but in 2020 the proceedings are to take place online because of COVID-19.[2][3]

There are a number of awards for specific categories of books, and an overall winner is selected as the "Book of the Year". In the 2019 competition (for books published in 2018), the categories were:[2]

• Fiction
• Guides and Places
• Illustration and Presentation
• Landscape and Tradition
• Literature and Poetry
• People and Business

Winners

List of winners, sortable by year, author, title, publisher

Year	Author	Title	Publisher & ISBN	Notes
1984 joint[4]	Automobile Association and Ordnance Survey	AA/OS Guide to the Lake District	AA/OS ISBN 978-0861451920
1984 joint[4]	Mary E. Burkett & David Sloss	William Green of Ambleside: Lake District Artist (1760-1823)	Abbot Hall Art Gallery ISBN 978-0950333540	on William Green
1985[5]	Alfred Wainwright with photographs by Derry Brabbs	Fellwalking with Wainwright	Michael Joseph ISBN 9780718124281	18 favourite walks; new ed published 2006
1986/87 joint[4]	Peter Thornton	Lakeland from the Air	Dalesman ISBN 978-0852068502	with foreword by Alfred Wainwright
1986/87 joint[4]	Trevor Haywood	Walking with a Camera in Herries' Lakeland	Fountain Press ISBN 978-0863430237	referring to Hugh Walpole's Herries Chronicles
1988[6]	Molly Lefebure	The Bondage of Love – A Life of Mrs Samuel Taylor Coleridge	Victor Gollancz ISBN 0-575-03871-3	on the poet's wife Sara Fricker
1989[4]	Enid Wilson	Country Diary	Hodder & Stoughton ISBN 0-340-41522-3	Wilson wrote for "Country Diary" in The Guardian for 30 years
1990[5][4]	Vivian Russell	Dream gardens: discovering the gardens of the Lake District	Century ISBN 9780712629126
1991[4]	David Clifford (ed)	The Diaries of Lady Anne Clifford	Sutton ISBN 9780750931786	editor is a descendant of Lady Anne
1992[4]	Alan Hankinson	Coleridge Walks the Fells: A Lakeland Journey Retraced	Ellenbank ISBN 978-1873551004	retracing Coleridge's 1802 9-day walk[7]
1993[4]	Iain Peters & Colin Shelbourn	Rocky Rambler's Wild Walker	Cicerone ISBN 978-1852843472	10 Lake District walks for children
1994[8]	Grevel Lindop	A Literary Guide to the Lake District	Chatto & Windus ISBN 9780701161620	a 3rd ed was published in 2015
1995[4]	John Heelis	The Tale of Mrs. William Heelis	Sutton ISBN 978-0750921251	author's great-uncle was Beatrix Potter's husband William Heelis[9]
1996[4]	June Thistlethwaite	Cumbrian Women Remember: Lake District Life in the Early 1900s	Sutton ISBN 978-1873551127
1997[4]	Andrew Wilson	A President's Love Affair with the Lake District: Woodrow Wilson's Second Home	Lakeland Press Agency ISBN 9780952855002	on Woodrow Wilson's visits to the area: his mother was born in Carlisle[10]
1998[4]	Mary E. Burkett & Valerie M. Rickerby	Percy Kelly: a Cumbrian Artist	Skiddaw ISBN 978-0952835622	on Percy Kelly
1999[11]	Gil and Pat Hitchon	Sam Bough, RSA: the Rivers in Bohemia	Book Guild ISBN 978-1857762303	on Carlisle-born Sam Bough RSA
2000[12]	A. Harry Griffin	The Coniston Tigers: Seventy Years of Mountain Adventure	Sigma Leisure ISBN 9781850587132	autobiography
2001[3]	John & Eileen Malden	Rex Malden's Whitehaven	Try Malden ISBN 9780953925704	photographs by John Malden's father, vicar of Whitehaven[13]
2002[14]	Ian Tyler	Cumbrian Mining	Blue Rock ISBN 978-0952302865	in 2002 the author ran the Threlkeld Quarry and Mining Museum
2003[15]	Cumbria Bird Club	The Breeding Birds of Cumbria: A Tetrad Atlas 1997-2001	Cumbria Bird Club ISBN 978-0954324902	Cumbria Bird Club
2004[16]	Martin Varley	Lakeland life in the 1940s and 1950s : the photographs of Gwen Bertelsman	Halsgrove ISBN 978-1841142777	Gwen Bertelsman ("Bertlesman" in many sources) died in 1994[17]
2005[18]	Jane Renouf	The Lake Artists Society: 1904-2004 - A Centenary Celebration	Lake Artists Society ISBN 978-0954678500	on the Lake Artists Society
2006[19]	Chris Crowder; photographs by Vivian Russell	The Garden at Levens	Frances Lincoln ISBN 978-0711224346	on Levens Hall
2007[20]	Linda Lear	Beatrix Potter: A Life In Nature	Penguin ISBN 978-0141003108	on Beatrix Potter
2008[21]	Tim Longville; photographs by Val Corbett	Gardens of the Lake District	Frances Lincoln ISBN 9780711227132
2009[22]	Keith Richardson	Ivver Sen: Lake District: The Life and Times of the Men and Women Who Work the Land	River Greta Writer ISBN 978-0955964008	title means "Ever since" in Cumbrian dialect
2010[23]	Chris Wadsworth	Hercules and the Farmer’s Wife; And Other Stories from a Cumbrian Art Gallery	Aurum Press ISBN 978-1845135546	by owner of the Castlegate House Art Gallery in Cockermouth
2011[24]	Cate Haste	Sheila Fell: a Passion for Paint	Lund Humphries ISBN 978-0853319795	on Sheila Fell
2012 joint[25][26]	David Cross	Dear Mary, Love Percy: A Creative Thread - The Illustrated Letters of Percy Kelly to Mary Burkett 1968-1993	Skiddaw Press ISBN 978-0955964022	letters from Percy Kelly to Mary Burkett
2012 joint[25]	Keith Richardson & Val Corbett	Jack's Yak: A Unique Journey Through Time with the Special Trees of the Lake District and Cumbria and the Remarkable Stories They Have to Tell	River Greta Writer ISBN 978-0955964022	the title tree is an oak ("yak") on the Lowther estate
2013[27][28]	Stephen Matthews	A Lazy Tour in Cumberland	Bookcase ISBN 9781904147688	when Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens visited in 1857 and wrote The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices
2014[29]	Simon Temple-Bennett	Undressed for Dinner	Hayloft ISBN 9781904524984	on turning Augill Castle into a hotel
2015[30][31]	James Rebanks	The Shepherd's Life: A Tale of the Lake District	Allen Lane ISBN 9781846148545	on sheep farming in Matterdale
2016[32]	Robert Beale & Richard Kirkman	Lakeland Waterways: a history of travel along the English Lakes	Lily ISBN 9781907945861	Beale is a Windermere Lake Cruises skipper[33]
2017[34]	Rory Stewart	The Marches: Border Walks With My Father	Jonathan Cape ISBN 978-0224097680	a walk through the Scottish Marches
2018[1]	Phil Rigby	Portrait of Cumbria: Life and Landscape	CN Group ISBN 9781999771201	photographs
2019[2]	Alan Cleaver & Lesley Park	The Corpse Roads of Cumbria	Chitty Mouse Press ISBN 978-1999671808	on corpse roads
2020[35]	David Felton, Evelyn Sinclair & Andrew Chapman	The Lake District in 101 Maps and Infographics	Jake Island ISBN 978-1999894030	Announced online 30 June 2020, no gala lunch event, because of COVID-19.[2] "The graphics cover just about everything people want to know or think they know about the Lakes".[36]

References

1. "Photographer takes top accolade at Lakeland Book of the Year Awards". James Cropper plc. 2018. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
2. "Lakeland Book of the Year". Cumbria Tourism. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
3. Leckey, Susan (2015). "Lakeland Book of the Year Awards". The Europa Directory of Literary Awards and Prizes. Routledge. p. 158. ISBN 978-1-135-35632-3. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
4. The James Cropper 33rd Hunter Davies Lakeland Book of the Year Awards (menu). Lakeland Book of the Year. 11 July 2017. Menu booklet from charity luncheon at Armathwaite Hall Hotel, containing full list of previous winners
5. "Time running out for Lakeland Book of Year entries". Cumberland & Westmorland Herald. 9 March 2012. Retrieved 21 May 2020. Previous winners of the Lakeland Book of the Year have included Alfred Wainwright, 1985
6. "Author dies weeks before screening of drama". www.cwherald.com. 22 March 2013. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
7. Patterson, Mark (5 March 2019). "Chasing Coleridge". Wordsworth - Grasmere. Retrieved 27 May 2020.
8. Lindop, Grevel (2005). A Literary Guide to the Lake District (2nd ed.). Sigma Leisure. p. ix. ISBN 978-1-85058-821-4. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
9. Weideger, Paula (6 October 1993). "Tales of the real Beatrix Potter". The Independent. Retrieved 27 May 2020. Brigadier John Heelis ... has just finished a biography of Beatrix Potter ... her husband, who was his great-uncle William.
10. "An American President's Love Affair with the English Lake District - by Andrew Wilson". www.dedicate.co.uk. Retrieved 27 May 2020.
11. "Lakeland Book of the Year award winners". Cumberland & Westmorland Herald. 19 June 1999. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
12. Buckley, Norman (1994). Lakeland Walking: On the Level. Sigma Leisure. ISBN 9781850583899. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
13. "Cumbria captured on camera in 30s and 40s". Cumbria & Westmorland Herald. 23 August 2003. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
14. "Ian wins Lakeland Book of the Year". Cumberland & Westmorland Herald. 29 June 2002. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
15. "The Breeding Birds of Cumbria: a tetrad atlas 1997-2001". www.cumbriabirdclub.org.uk. Cumbria Bird Club. Retrieved 26 May 2020. Our Atlas has won the ... Lakeland Book of the Year 2003.
16. "Wild Lakeland". www.halsgrove.com. Halsgrove. Retrieved 26 May 2020. Martin Varley ... was the editor of Lakeland Life in the '40s and '50s ... which won the Lakeland Book of the Year Award in 2004.
17. "Landscape and life of the Lake District". Cumbria & Westmorland Herald. 4 October 2003. Retrieved 26 May 2020. Gwen Bertelsman left few possessions when she died in 1994...
18. "The Lake Artists Society: 1904-2004 - A Centenary Celebration". www.bookscumbria.com. Books Cumbria. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
19. "First Time Author Wins Lakeland Book of Year Prize". Cumbria & Westmorland Herald. 24 June 2006. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
20. "Beatrix Potter biography wins Lakeland bookof the year award". Cumberland & Westmorland Herald. 29 June 2007. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
21. "Lakeland Book of the Year announced". Whitehaven News. 9 July 2008. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
22. "River Greta Writer titles win Lakeland Awards". River Greta Writer. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
23. "Cockermouth author wins Lakeland book of year award". Times and Star. 9 July 2010. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
24. "Lady Bragg wins 2011 Lakeland Book of the Year". The Westmorland Gazette. 5 July 2011. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
25. "Keswick author is joint winner of Lakeland Book of the Year". Cumberland & Westmorland Herald. 13 July 2012. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
26. "Letters reveal more about Cumbrian artist". Cumberland & Westmorland Herald. 25 November 2011. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
27. "A Lazy Tour in Cumberland". www.bookscumbria.com. Books Cumbria. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
28. "Maryport Literary Festival". Grevel Lindop. 7 November 2013. Retrieved 25 May 2020. Steven Matthews ... Winner of this year’s Lakeland Book of the Year Award...
29. "Lakeland Book of the Year winners revealed". The Bookseller. 16 July 2014. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
30. "Lakeland Book of the Year 2015 winners revealed". James Cropper plc. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
31. "Lakeland Book of the Year Awards at the Inn on the Lake". Lake District Hotels Blog. 17 July 2015. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
32. "Lakeland Book of the Year 2016 Winners Revealed". Cumbria Tourism. 7 July 2016. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
33. "Annual Cumbrian Literary Awards". Cumbria Tourism. 27 January 2017. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
34. "Rory Stewart is the 33rd Lakeland Book of the Year Winner". James Cropper plc. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
35. "Lakeland Book of the Year 2020". Cumbria Tourism. Retrieved 3 July 2020. Youtube video of the online event: announcement is at 33mins
36. Addison, Mike (7 December 2019). "New book answers hundreds of questions about the Lake District". The Westmorland Gazette. Retrieved 30 June 2020.