Writer and historian of nature
in modern British culture
THE BOOK
Listening to British Nature
This is the first book about the place of nature’s sounds in early twentieth-century British life. It considers the meanings of birdsong, the sonic essence of ideas like peace-and-quiet and ‘silence’, and how these sounds related to national identity and the future in times of war and technological change.
It is published by Oxford University Press in spring 2022.
>Projects
Birds in the boozer
Wild birds like chaffinches and goldfinches were highly prized for their song. And they were trained to win singing competitions in many a London pub as recently as the 1980s.
>About me
I am a writer and historian of nature in modern urban British culture, and a Research Associate in Media & Cultural Studies at the University of Sussex.
I’m particularly interested in how we like to keep in touch with the natural world, while our contained and urban lives are carefully designed to exclude it. There is a craving for imaginative and sensory contact which can take many forms: pet keeping, watching Attenborough on TV, tending the garden, walking and escaping on holiday to the countryside or the sea.
>Blog
