Landlines: British Nature Writing

Since 2017, Will Abberley has been a co-investigator on the AHRC-funded research project Land Lines, which traces the development of nature writing in Britain from 1789 to the present. Taking a historicist approach to literary genre, the project interrogates British nature writing's complex, contradictory relationship to discourses of modernity, identity and environment. The project seeks to challenge common perceptions of this genre as politically and aesthetically 'conservative' or 'naive'. It also seeks to counter a USA-centric emphasis in scholarship on nature writing, examining how British contexts have shaped tendencies and resonances distinct from the North American tradition. Will and his co-researchers have produced a monograph on the topic, due for publication with Cambridge University Press in Autumn 2021. In 2017, Will organised an exhibition and series of public lectures on ornithology and literature at Brighton's Booth Museum of Natural History, featuring a talk by the nature writer Mark Cocker. Will appeared on a segment of BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking programme to promote the exhibition. The project also involved a public poll to find the nation’s favourite nature book, which was mentioned on the BBC’s Autumn Watch and also promoted by a professionally produced video, presented by Will. The poll was won by Chris Packham’s Fingers in the Sparkle Jar, an event that won media coverage from newspapers such as The Daily Express, The Independent, The Belfast Telegraph and The Sunday Post. In 2018, Will presented a BBC Radio 3 ‘Proms Extra’ discussion panel on ‘The British Countryside, Real and Imagined’ with the nature writer and novelist Melissa Harrison and archaeologist Francis Pryor. In 2019, Will also presented a 45-minute feature for Radio 3 Into the Eerie, which explored the aesthetic category of eeriness in the work of contemporary artists interested in environment and landscapes. Further, in collaboration with Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, two public events were held at the Flamborough Head Living Seas Centre in Bridlington: a public talk and reading by the acclaimed nature writer Philip Hoare, and a family fun day.

Land Lines culminated in the 2019 conference Nature Writing’s Future Pasts.

Will Abberley speaks about the Landlines hunt for the UK’s favourite nature book: