Women on Nature

by Katharine Norbury (Editor)

What would happen, I wondered, if I simply missed out the fifty per cent of the population whose voices have been credited with shaping this particular 'cultural norm'. If I coppiced the woodland, so to speak, and allowed the light to shine down to the forest floor and illuminate countless saplings now that a gap has opened in the canopy. . .

There has, in recent years, been an explosion of writing about place, landscape and the natural world. But within this blossoming of interest, women's voices have remained very much in the minority.

For the very first time, this landmark anthology collects together the work of women, over the centuries and up to the present day, who have written about the natural world in Britain, Ireland and the outlying islands of our archipelago. Alongside the traditional forms of the travelogue, the walking guide, books on birds, plants and wildlife, Women on Nature embraces alternative modes of seeing and recording that turn the genre on its head.

Katharine Norbury has sifted through the pages of women's fiction, poetry, household planners, gardening diaries and recipe books to show the multitude of ways in which they have observed the natural world about them, from the fourteenth-century writing of the anchorite nun Julian of Norwich to the seventeenth-century travel journal of Celia Fiennes; from the keen observations of Emily Bronte to a host of brilliant contemporary voices.

Women on Nature presents a groundbreaking vision of the natural world which, in addition to being a rich and scintillating anthology that shines a light on many unjustly overlooked writers, is of unique importance in terms of women's history and the history of writing about nature.

Genres: Nonfiction, Nature, Womens, Poetry, Essays, Natural History, Feminism

483 pages, Paperback

First published May 13, 2021

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was over three years between when I pledged support and held the finished Unbound book in my hands; I can only imagine what a mammoth job compiling it was for Katharine Norbury (author of The Fish Ladder). The subtitle on the title page explains the limits she set: “An anthology of women’s writing about the natural world in the east Atlantic archipelago.” So, broadly, British and Irish writers, but within that there’s a lot of scope for variety: fragments of fiction (e.g., a passage from Jane Eyre), plenty of poetry, but mostly nonfiction narratives – some work in autobiographical reflection; others are straightforward nature or travel writing. Excerpts from previously published works trade off with essays produced specifically for this volume. So I encountered snippets of works I’d read by the likes of Miriam Darlington, Melissa Harrison, Sara Maitland, Polly Samson and Nan Shepherd. The timeline stretches from medieval mystics to today’s Guardian Country Diarists and BIPOC nature writers.

For most of the last seven months of 2021, I kept this as a bedside book, reading one or two pieces on most nights. It wasn’t until early this year that I brought it downstairs and started working it into my regular daily stacks so that I would see more progress. At first I quibbled (internally) with the decision to structure the book alphabetically by author. I wondered if more might have been done to group the pieces by region or theme. But besides being an unwieldy task, that might have made the contents seem overly determined. Instead, you get the serendipity of different works conversing with each other. So, for example, Katrina Porteous’s dialect poem about a Northumberland fisherman is followed immediately by Jini Reddy’s account of a trip to Lindisfarne; Margaret Cavendish’s 1653 dialogue in verse between an oak tree and the man cutting him down leads perfectly into an excerpt from Nicola Chester’s On Gallows Down describing a confrontation with tree fellers.

I’d highly recommend this for those who are fairly new to the UK nature writing scene and/or would like to read more by women. Keep it as a coffee table book or a bedside read and pick it up between other things. You’ll soon find your own favourites.

Five favourites:

“Caravan” by Sally Goldsmith (a Sheffield tree defender)

“Enlli: The Living Island” by Pippa Marland (about the small Welsh island of Bardsey)

“An Affinity with Bees” by Elizabeth Rose Murray (about beekeeping, and her difficult mother, who called herself “the queen bee”)

“An Island Ecology” by Sarah Thomas (about witnessing a whale hunt on the Faroe Islands)

My overall favourite: “Arboreal” by Jean McNeil (about living in Antarctica for a winter and the contrast between that treeless continent and Canada, where she grew up, and England, where she lives now)

“It occurred to me that trees were part of the grammar of one’s life, as much as any spoken language. … To see trees every day and to be seen by them is a privilege.”

Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.

[Fern A · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really good book for dipping in and out of. ‘Women on Nature’, as the title suggests, is an anthology of nature writing by women. Set out in alphabetical order by authors name it contains poetry, recipes, fiction and non fiction by writers as far back as Julian of Norwich to authors whose work is awaiting publication later in the year.

I really liked that though there was much variety there was also an underlying feel that no matter what changes in the world and what happens nature is always there and even across centuries is probably one of the most constant and recognisable elements we have left, yet we need to be careful or we could loose that too. I should say though this book should be read with caution as it has added a lot of other books to my TBR list as so many of the extracts have made me want to go away and read more from where it came.

[James Mackay · Rating 3 out of 5]

The idea of this anthology is distinctly better than its execution. First off, the good stuff: nature writing by women has been an under-read and under-promoted genre, so it's good to see it celebrated.

Now the less good.

1) The decision to sort by author surname, while probably intended to create all sorts of unexpected pairings, actually makes the book a pain to navigate. Sorting by date would have allowed for a sense of a developing tradition, while sorting by theme would have really let those connections shine.

2) Many of the extracts are very short and frankly don't feel like writing "about" nature (depending on the weight you give that preposition). This is particularly true of the short extracts from 20th century novels.

3) Far, far, far too many of these extracts are from works published after 2010. That's a problem as it privileges a specific kind of nature writing: essayistic, impressionistic, enormously learned and often centred on a single natural phenomenon. I read a lot of this stuff, and love it, but it's very much a specific genre, somewhat ideological (as it should be given the urgency of climate change), and a product of a specialisation that emerged from creative writing workshops, degrees and other forms of professionalisation.

It's a shame: I really wanted to love this project, but I doubt I'll pick it up again despite the strengths of individual passages.

[Sophy H · Rating 3 out of 5]

The good the bad and the poetry!

This collection of essays, poems and fiction was average across the board, with some of the featured entries feeling a bit like fillers.

Okay but not the best nature writing I've encountered.

Not a book I'd particularly return to so it's off for donation.

[Lydia · Rating 3 out of 5]

So just to get it out of the way I’ll start with the less positive aspects. While I appreciate lots of different styles of writing, I have to say there are a few passages/poems in this book that are convoluted, pretentious and/or just straight up awful. I skipped them. A good example being ‘To a fat lady seen from the train’ - why on earth is this included in this book? It was actually incredibly jarring to come across this poem. Regardless of when it was written, it’s not a piece of writing that should be included in any book in the 21st century, certainly not in a book showcasing women’s writing. Kind of ruined the whole feminist vibe of the book and should be taken out if ever revised.

I also feel on the whole like the book would benefit from some kind of grouping together of similar works/themes or dates etc because it is quite random and there’s no way to dip into it knowing what you want to read and finding it. Other than this I did enjoy reading this book. It has some very educational pieces which I learnt a lot from (even having come from a nature based career/background). I found some authors I would like to read more of and there are some very profound and moving moments within these pages. Overall it’s an enjoyable read.

[Tilly · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 Stars

This is possibly my fault for buying without reading the summary.
Even still, it didn't live up to it's promise.
I love women working in or talking about Nature and also am a huge Nature, Wildlife and Outdoors fan, so this should have been for me.
Unfortunately loads of the clips weren't really about Nature and many of them were boring.
I struggled to get through the book at times. There were so many small bits (not including poetry in this) that it meant I could never really sink my teeth into a specific theme.
I wish the book had been split into themes as that would have helped a little.

Sadly, not for me.

[Stephen Dunstan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a while to get through it, but it probably isn't a book to go from page 1 to page 427. As others have said it's something to dip in and out of. The strength of the contributions is very high overall, and with over 100 if you are underwhelmed by any something better soon comes along.

It might have been better to group the contributions by some themes, or chronologically, rather than alphabetically which is extremely arbitrary. Failing that, some kind of postscript might have helped as well an introduction. The illustrations don't add a lot and could have been dispensed with.

[Dr. des. Siobhán · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think "Women on Nature" is a great compilation of nature writing by women but the lack of context for each piece marred the enjoyment a bit. I would've liked to be able to pick up the book and know a bit about the author, her time, the work the excerpt was taken from and then enjoying the excerpt. As of now I keep googling and getting lost on sidequests when researching these authors. But that might be a me problem. Otherwise quite the nice collection, impressive really!

[Harriet Moar-Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good coffee table book, or a guide to find your next book, I wish I’d have read this dipping in and out as it did begin to feel rather repetitive. I so wish this was grouped more by theme as it would have made dipping easier so that I could search based on what I was in the mood for. I also wish there were more historical views, I understand there’s less to choose from but I did find those parts the most interesting.

[Terri · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an inspirational book about nature written by women over centuries. It's edited and compiled by Katherine Notbury. The book includes very powerful views and stories about the poignant and beautiful natural world.

[Andrew Van Herik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many stories or poems in here are good or great. The project of making an alphabetical compendium of women writers from a specific part of the UK is ambitious, but it felt like a more curated collection would have more impact.

[Eirwen Abberley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very wholesome and joyful - it was wonderful to read the descriptions and observations of women which have been somewhat obscured throughout history. There were so many interesting lives and stories in this collection, including some that hit really hard.

[Nina Mitchell · Rating 3 out of 5]

“In simple terms, you could say a Romantic preferred to wake to a cockerel than a clock.”

[Hannah Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful!!!! It's given me a whole host of authors to read, and also opened my eyes to many different forms of nature writing. I started putting post-it notes in the ones I wanted to go back to and there is a ridiculous amount!! I found myself drawn to the modern writers, and how fantastic that there are so many.