Nominations for the 2026 Richard Jefferies Award for Nature Writing are now open. Full details of how to nominate a book are available on this web site.
Nominations can be made until noon on 1 December
The following is an example of Richard Jefferies’ writing that shows his ability to paint a picture in words and which portrays his sense of place. It is from 'Wild flowers' (1885).
‘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.‘