Lakeland Book of the Year
Lakeland Book of the Year celebrates top quality writing inspired by the Lake District, Cumbria. Over the past four decades, this prestigious annual competition has seen authors create an incredible catalogue of books covering a range of rich and varied subjects, from landscape and tradition to literature and poetry.
Founded in 1984 by prolific author, journalist and broadcaster Hunter Davies OBE, all entries for Lakeland Book of the Year must be set in – or feature – Cumbria in some way. Grace Dent, Rory Stewart and James Rebanks are among the many talented writers who have previously scooped the overall title of ‘Book of the Year’.
Cumbria Tourism has had the honour of supporting Lakeland Book of the Year for many years and and has recently taken over the full running of the awards.
The latest addition is the CGP Books Awards for Children’s Award. In 2023, this new award was won by Wiktoria Crusciel from John Ruskin School. The runners up were Betony Buller and Lily Dann from John Ruskin School and Sam Smith from Milburn School.
Congratulations to the winners from our 2023 Awards.
Lakeland Book of the Year 2024
We will start accepting 2024 entries in December 2023. Remember, to enter the 2024 awards, your book must have been released/produced in 2023.
Video round up of all the 2023 winners:
The Hunter Davies Lakeland Book of the Year 2023:
Forty Farms by Amy Bateman
The full list of 2023 category winners included:
The Bookends Prize for People & Business
Between Before and After by Edita Mujkic
The Eric Robson Striding Edge Prize for Guides & Places
Extreme Lakeland by Nadir Khan and Tom McNally
The Bill Rollinson Association Prize for Landscape & Tradition
Forty Farms by Amy Bateman
Edita Mujkic
Tom McNally
Amy Bateman
The Gilpin Hotel Prize for Fiction
The Bingo Hall Detectives by Jonathan Whitelaw
The Wordsworth Grasmere Prize for Literature & Poetry
163 Days by Hannah Hodgson
The Latitude Press Prize for Illustration & Presentation
My Lakeland by Jim Watson
Jonathan Whitelaw
Hannah Hodgson
Jim Watson
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Get In Touch
For more information about Lakeland Book of the Year, contact Ben Melling on bmelling@cumbriatourism.org