From bestseller lists to blogs, environmental writing is flourishing. This series of anthologies serves to capture nature writing at its most exciting and diverse, edited as it is by one of the rising stars of the genre, Melissa Harrison, an award-winning novelist and nature writer.
The first of the books, Spring, includes original pieces from masters of the form such as Rob Cowen, Miriam Darlington and Stephen Moss, as well as classic contributions from the great naturalists and many of our best loved writers. These pieces are interspersed with those by new writers, who offer a fresh diversity of perspective and a snapshot of spring in Britain today.
David North, Head of People and Wildlife at Norfolk Wildlife Trust has a piece included, in which he writes about spring at Cley Marshes in north Norfolk:
“Spring arrived at Cley Marshes this morning in the shape of a bird. Not a feather out of place. So smart, with his grey head and back, black bandit cheek mask, black wings and warm yellow underparts. My first wheatear of the year, with a flash of his white rump, flits out of sight over the edge of Cley’s shingle bank, leaving me wondering just how far this bird has travelled and where he may be by tomorrow. Cley springs are full of such miracles. Today the green jungle of alexanders plants edging the path to the reed-thatched hides has gained a voice. Hidden sedge warblers are in full song. Then one, unable to contain this surge of spring energy, flies up to hover, still singing, in full view over the boardwalk.”
Nick Morritt, Visitor Services and Sales Manager at Norfolk Wildlife Trust reviewed the book:
“Spring is a wonderful collection of writings meditating on and celebrating the emergence of new beginnings in nature as winter draws to a close. Author Melissa Harrison has edited a charming assortment of original pieces in prose and poetry (including a portrait of spring at Cley Marshes form NWT’s Head of People and Wildlife, David North) which sit alongside some classic contributions from more established writers like George Orwell, ruminating on the common toad as a less conventional harbinger of spring. Current thoughts on nature, health and well-being are aptly echoed in his words that retaining a childhood love of nature makes a decent and peaceful future more likely.”
Spring is available to purchase from Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s office on Bewick House and all NWT Visitor Centres It is the first of four titles, known collectively as The Seasons, to be released at quarterly intervals throughout the year, in February, May, August and November.
Melissa Harrison’s novel At Hawthorn Time was shortlisted for Costa Best Novel Award in 2015; she won the John Muir Trust’s ‘Wild Writing’ Award in 2010 and was a Writer in Residence at Gladstone’s Library in 2014. She delivered one of the inaugural Coleridge Lectures as part of Bristol’s Festival of Ideas, spoke about landscape and Englishness at The Southbank’s Changing Britain festival, and has appeared on Radio 4’s Open Book and The Arts Show on Radio 2. She writes for the Nature Notes column in The Times and blogs about nature at Tales of the City. Her two novels, Clay and At Hawthorn Time, are published by Bloomsbury.