Conville & Walsh

We’re delighted to announce that Gavin Pretor-Pinney has won the 2011 Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books for his book The Wave Watcher’s Companion.

In the book, Gavin Pretor-Pinney, founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society, takes time out from cloudspotting to explain what waves are and explore how they appear everywhere around us.

Beating off significant competition from a shortlist of six, including Guy Deutscher and Alex Bellos, Gavin won the £10,000 prize at a ceremony in the Royal Society last night. ‘I’m really grateful to the jury, Royal Society and Winton Capital Management,’ he said on receiving the award. ‘What interests me in science is that it follows from being curious about the world around us. I hope my book motivates others to be curious too!’

Richard Holmes, chair of the judging panel, said, ‘It is a book of old-fashioned charm and wit, provocatively organized and illustrated, and marvellously deft with its presentation of hard modern science.  In short, it is a delightful winner.’

The first chapter of each shortlisted book is available to download for free at: royalsociety.org/awards/science-books/.