'Up until now, British and Irish nature writing has been almost exclusively white'

                                                     

Only one extract in anthology has a black author

AUTHOR and journalist Patrick Barkham has expressed disappointment  that so few nature-focused books have been written by black, Asian or ethnic minority authors.  

He says: "Until now, British and Irish nature writing has been almost exclusively white.

"As recently as 2020, I knew of only two published books of what would widely be considered nature writing by writers of a black, Asian or ethnic minority background.

                                                      

  Patrick Barkham - 'whiteness is stark'

                                              

"The whiteness of British and Irish nature writing is stark.

"It is shared by the whiteness of professional conservationists with studies showing conservation to be one of the whitest industry in the country."

Patrick Barkham, whose work is regularly published in The Guardian newspaper, makes the observation in his introduction to an excellent anthology of nature writing - The Wild Isles.

One of the black-authored extracts he has chosen  comes from The Grassling, a memoir by Elizabeth-Jane Burnett which, he says, "fizzes with joy, poetry and originality".

Does it matter whether authors are white or black?

Barkham answers the inevitable question thus: "Some readers might wonder what barn owls or stag beetles care about the colour of the skin of the person writing about them?

"Creatively, why is it relevant?"

To this, he answers: "If British and Irish nature writing is to grow and endure, to survive the whims of fashion, publishing and parody, it must be diverse, complex, multi-faceted and dynamic - and relevant to everyone who lives on this land."

On the plus side, he says "belatedly the sector is taking steps to change the situation".

The Wild Isles is published by Head of Zeus.