Lakeland Book of the Year

The Lakeland Book of the Year, also known as the Hunter Davies Lakeland Book of the Year is an award named for the Lake District of north west England and given annually for a book, originally "set in or featuring Cumbria in some way". From 2026 the criterion is that "The author of the book should have strong connections to Cumbria, or the book itself must have a majority of Cumbria-related content." It was founded by writer Hunter Davies in 1984 and was administered by Cumbria Tourism until 2025. Davies was one of the judges from 1984 to 2022. In 2023, following Davies's retirement from the role, the judges were Fiona Armstrong, Eric Robson, Michael McGregor, director of Wordsworth Grasmere, and "guest judge" Rachel Laverack from Cumbria County Council. The prizes were traditionally announced at a gala lunch in June, although in 2020 the proceedings took place online because of COVID-19. Cumbria Tourism announced the dates for the 2025 award, but later announced that they were no longer organising the award.

From 2026 "The awards ... are now run by the Lakeland Book of the Year in association with a panel of distinguished patrons and judges." As of January 2026 the patrons are Hunter Davies, Marie-Elsa Roche Bragg, Michael McGregor, Kathleen Jones, Fiona Armstrong, and Simon Stephens.

There are a number of awards for specific categories of books, and an overall winner is selected as the "Book of the Year". From the 2021 competition (for books published in 2020), and still for 2026, the categories were:

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

In 2023 a new prize for Children's Poem of the Year, sponsored by CGP Books was added, open to Cumbrian schoolchildren between key stages 2 and 5.

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