TWENTY authors from across Cumbria have made the final shortlist for the Lakeland Book of the Year award 2014.

Nearly 60 entries were received but judges have whittled these down to a top 20.

Winners will be revealed at a charity awards luncheon at The Inn on the Lake, Ullswater, on July 3.

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There are five categories, with each providing a prize of £100, while the headline prize of Lakeland Book of the Year carries a £1,000 cash prize.

This year's competition is sponsored by Bonhams and the charity to benefit will be the North West Air Ambulance.

It is the 30th Lakeland Book of the Year Awards and the judging panel includes awards creator, Hunter Davies, BBC newsreader Fiona Armstrong and Gardeners’ Question Time chairman Eric Robson.

Local authors on the shortlist are –

  • Matthew Connolly, of Kendal, for Dances With Daffodils
  • Claire Mansfield & Amy Onyango, of Kendal, for Felltarn Friends
  • Rob David, of Kendal, for In Search of Arctic Wonders Cumbria and the Arctic in the 18th-19th Centuries
  • Paula Daly, of Bowness, for What Kind Of Mother Are You?
  • Kathleen Jones, of Appleby, for Norman Nicholson: The Whispering Poet
  • Polly Atkin, of Grasmere, for Shadow Dispatches
  • Andy Gilchrist, of Kendal, for The Apples and Orchards of Cumbria
  • Sir James Cropper, of Burneside, for The Hunting Diary Of CJ Cropper
  • John Nixon, of Kirkby-in-Furness, for The Warbirds of Walney
  • Paula Day, of Killington, near Sedbergh, for Tree
  • Simon Temple-Bennett, of Kirkby Stephen, for Undressed For Dinner