Melissa Harrison on nature writing, taking risks, advice for new writers and learning birdsongs

Melissa Harrison is an award-winning novelist, nature writer and podcaster. Melissa’s podcast The Stubborn Light of Things has the same title as her book that was named the Sunday Times Nature Book of the Year. In the book it feels like she’s taking us by her side as she walks through the greens of London and the English countryside, sharing warm and poetic observations of the natural world. There’s a joy in her lush descriptions, with the magic of frogspawn, seahorses in the Thames, murmurations of starlings, elfin dog violets and more. Melissa’s writing is finely observed, musical and intimate and she echoes this in her podcast with her soothing voice and recordings of the fields and birds. 

Melissa also contributes a monthly nature column to The Times, which the book was based on, and writes for various other publications. Her most recent novel, All Among the Barley, was described by Jon McGregor as “a masterpiece”. Her other novels are Clay and At Hawthorn Time and she’s written a non-fiction meditation called Rain: Four Walks in English Weather, and edited four anthologies of the seasons.