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.

There are five categories, with each providing a prize of £100, while the headline prize of Lakeland Book of the Year carries a £1000 cash prize.

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

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

The final shortlist

Stuart Miller, of Braithwaite, for Canoe & Kayak Guide to North West England

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

Steve Chilton, of Enfield, for It's A Hill, Get Over It

Paula Daly, of Bowness, for What Kind Of Mother Are You?

Alan Cleaver & Lesley Park, of Whitehaven, for Lonnings

Kathleen Jones, of Appleby for Norman Nicholson: The Whispering Poet

Miriam Darlington, of London, for Otter Country

Polly Atkin, of Grasmere, for Shadow Dispatches

Andy Gilchristm, of Kendal, for The Apples and Orchards of Cumbria

David Ramshaw, of Carlisle, for The Carlisle Ship Canal

Mark Richards, of Brampton, for The Far Eastern Fells

Stephen Matthews, of Carlisle, for The Gentlemen Who Surveyed Cumberland

Sir James Cropper, of Burneside, for The Hunting Diary Of CJ Cropper

John Nixon, of Kirkby-in-Furness, for The Warbirds of Walney

John Sharpe, of Carlisle, for The Workman Brothers

Paula Day, of Killington near Sedbergh, for Tree

Simon Temple-Bennett, of Kirkby Stephen, for Undressed For Dinner

Vivienne Crow, of Carlisle, for Walks With History