‘Elementary my dear Watson!’ – the winner of this year’s Inspired by Nature writing competition organised by Natur Cymru and sponsored by WWF Cymru.

 

Richard Birch, principal ecologist at Capita Symonds, Colwyn Bay, is the winner of the 2010 Inspired by Nature writing competition. The judges selected his story titled Extract from a Victorian diary.

 

The storyline is a familiar one, all about reading the signs of nature, but told in a novel and engaging way with the naturalist none other than Sherlock Holmes. Accompanied by Dr Watson, he studies the rocks beneath Parys Mountain, deducing their age by the presence of marine fossils before going on to identify the resident species of bat from the wings of moths on the floor, and so on.

 

For sheer originality, the stand-out essay. The concept of the nature detective is nothing new, but Richard succeeds admirably in the deceit of writing his article in the style of Conan Doyle. A novel way of bringing nature to a wider audience.

Andrew Forgrave, Environment Editor at the Daily Post and one of the judges.

 

This year there were 58 entries to the competition, most of which were good enough to be published. Whittling down this long list to a short list was tough but exhilarating. Natur Cymru’s Editor and Vice-Chair had to negotiate hard to establish a short list of six. Then the three judges had to pick the winner. “It was a humbling and sobering insight into the talent out there, both in terms of writing ability and enthusiasm for wildlife and nature.”

 

Iolo Williams will present Richard Birch with the £500 cash prize on the opening day of The Royal Welsh Show. The prize has been donated by WWF Cymru to promote debate and discussion about the wildlife and environment of Wales.

 

Anne Meikle, Head of WWF Cymru, said: “WWF Cymru is delighted to have sponsored this year’s Natur Cymru writing competition. It has given budding writers the opportunity to explore and promote such exciting and important topics as wildlife and the environment. We hope reading such talented work will enthuse others into discovering the wonders of nature and some of the threats which they face. We’re looking forward to attending the presentation at the Royal Welsh Show to congratulate the talented and worthy winner, Richard Birch.”

 

The runners up in the competition and the titles of their articles are as follows:

2nd The Art of Seeing Kingfishers Chris Kinsey

3rd Hirondelles Stewart Roberts

4th= Beetle Bling: Warriors of Chaos Paul Sinnadurai

4th = Taking Offence Rob Collister

4th = The River Dee and Me Steve Hughes

 

The winning and the second place articles will be published in the summer edition of Natur Cymru published in the 3rd week of June.

 

Notes to Editors:

For further information please contact Huw Jenkins, Natur Cymru on 01766 590272 huw.naturcymru@btinternet.com or Kim Richards, WWF Cymru on 029 2045 4972 KRichards@wwf.org.uk

Natur Cymru is the quarterly bilingual journal dedicated to the wildlife and nature of Wales supported by loyal subscribers and members of the Wales Biodiversity Partnership. It costs less than 4p a day to be a subscriber! http://www.wwf.org.uk

WWF Cymru is the Wales office of WWF-UK, which in turn forms part of the world's largest environmental network. Based in Cardiff Bay, but with some staff working remotely around Wales, the team covers policy work, lobbying and aims to ensure that environmental and sustainability issues are high on the political and media agenda in Wales. www.wwf.org.uk

 

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