Nominations can be submitted from 1 January to noon on 1 December 2025 (late nominations will not be accepted).
The short-list is drawn up in February 2026 and the winner announced in the late spring.
The following extract from Richard Jefferies' essay 'Wild Flowers' (1885) is an example of his ability to paint a picture in words and which portrays a sense of place.
'If we had never before looked upon the earth, but suddenly came to it man or woman grown, set down in the midst of a summer mead, would it not seem to us a radiant vision? The hues, the shapes, the song and life of birds, above all the sunlight, the breath of heaven, resting on it; the mind would be filled with its glory, unable to grasp it, hardly believing that such things could be mere matter and no more. Like a dream of some spirit-land it would appear, scarce fit to be touched lest it should fall to pieces, too beautiful to be long watched lest it should fade away. So it seemed to me as a boy, sweet and new like this each morning; and even now, after the years that have passed, and the lines they have worn in the forehead, the summer mead shines as bright and fresh as when my foot first touched the grass.'
