Description
Helen Mark heads to the Shropshire hills to discover how to write about nature at The Hurst, a place dedicated to artistic practice.
She meets author-tutors Miriam Darlington (Otter Country, Owl Sense) and Patrick Barkham (The Swimmer, Wild Isles) who share with Helen their techniques of encouraging new writers to find their own voice and how to turn observation and reflection into a compelling story. As she wanders through the summertime meadows with the group of budding writers, she hears how they hone their skills of attention and why writing about the natural world matters to them.
Helen also gains a sense of this pocket of the natural world within the landscape, finding out about the other species who call these Shropshire woodlands and gardens home.
The Hurst is run by the Arvon Foundation who promote creative writing.
Producer: Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio, Bristol
Helen Mark visits 50 square miles that were neither England nor Scotland. The Debatable Lands, between Carlisle and Gretna, were home to untameable crime families that petrified the most powerful of Lords and Kings. For hundreds of years governments in London and Edinburgh left the region to its...
Published 10/03/24
Martha Kearney follows the River Ouse, from the High Weald to the Sussex coast and - finally - into the sea itself. Along the way, she discovers how one of the UK's largest nature recovery projects is taking root.
The project is called 'Weald to Waves' - it's a wildlife corridor that has been...
Published 09/26/24