Top nature writing honour goes to Late Light by Michael Malay, which explores modern Britain through the ‘unloved’ lives of eels, moths, crickets and mussels

A book that explores modern Britain by examining four “unloved” animals – eels, moths, crickets and mussels – has won this year’s Wainwright prize for nature writing.

Michael Malay, a lecturer in literature and environmental humanities at the University of Bristol, took home the award for Late Light, in which he tells his story of moving to the UK as an Indonesian Australian, drawing parallels with the lives of the animals he looks at.