NEWS: Vertebrate has been shortlisted for The Great Outdoors Reader Awards 2026

We are celebrating at Vertebrate this week following the announcement that we have been nominated for The Great Outdoors Reader Awards’ Online Retailer of the Year Award. 

Four of our titles have also been shortlisted in the Outdoor Book of the Year category: Jo Mosley’s Adventures on the Water, the first book to explore how paddleboarding has changed the lives of so many people; Elise Downing’s Walk Britain, a guide to ninety eco-friendly adventures across the UK; Nicola Hardy’s Peak Bagging Munros Volume 1, a definitive guide to ‘compleating’ 141 of Scotland’s 3000-foot hills; and Paul Besley’s The Search, a memoir about his life as a mountain rescue volunteer and the special bond he shares with his search dog, Scout. 

The Search has also been shortlisted for this year's Boardman Talker Award for Mountain Literature which will be announced on 21 November at the Kendal Mountain Festival.

Now in their fourteen year, the Awards champion the people, places and businesses that inspire our outdoor adventures. 

Commenting on the shortlisting, Vertebrate’s Managing Director, Jon Barton said: ‘It is so good to see outdoor publishing in such a good place with what has to be one of the best longlist of titles seen in years. Good luck to every book on there not just our four titles. Thanks to all the readers out there and of course all the superb authors.’

This is the fifth year Vertebrate titles have been nominated for the Awards with Running Challenges, by Keri Wallace, having been shortlisted for the 2025 Awards, Cook Out, by Harrison Ward, shortlisted in 2024 and Suzanna Cruickshank's Swimming Wild in the Lake District scooping the Outdoor Book of the Year prize in 2020.