Ruaridh Nicoll

Ruaridh Nicoll’s delight in finding far-flung places populated with interesting and endangered species (including humans) shines through his writing. The Cocos Islands, for example, “are home to an army of land crabs, an endangered population of lugubrious geckos and 593 idiosyncratic people” who fight over fresh salad delivered by the weekly cargo plane. His rendering of life in the sparsely-populated Canadian region of Labrador is told from a trip along its one road, the recently completed 1,149km Trans-Labrador Highway, which the communities he talks to, clinging onto their beautiful but perilous landscapes and livelihoods, hope will bring new prosperity in the form of tourism.

His gently ironic piece about a billionaire property mogul attempting to reinvent the traditional hut-to-hut Alpine hike with guides, gourmet food and luxed-up mountain refuges, provides a nice counterpoint. It starts with his boots crumbling at the top of a mountain, and concludes: “Into the cattle-class world of Alpine hiking, Eleven [the company] has introduced first-class cabins. I’d disapprove, but Anna [the chef] had prepared some parmesan aubergine pancakes and I couldn’t resist.”

The judges praised Nicoll’s “use of humour and nuance, the sense of authenticity conveyed through conversations, and the interesting stories he weaves in.”