Karen Lloyd

Last updated

Karen Lloyd is an English author, poet, and environmental activist from the Lake District.

Contents

She is the author of The Gathering Tide (Saraband 2016) (selected as one of The Observer Writers’ Books of the Year in 2016), The Blackbird Diaries (Saraband 2017) and Abundance: Nature in Recovery (Bloomsbury 2021). [1] [2] Her writing has been published in The Guardian and various magazines and journals, including BBC Countryfile , The Ecologist and Goldsmiths scholarly communications. [3] [1] [4] Her essays have been published on Dark Mountain ('Inside the Rockpool Shrimp there is a Dying Star') on Mark Avery's Blog and in the forthcoming edition of Bending Genre: Essays on Creative Nonfiction (Bloomsbury Academic). [5] In spring 2020, after lockdown, she was commissioned by the BBC to write a poem in response to Ruskin's View in Kirkby Lonsdale, and appeared on BBC 3 arts programme The Verb, hosted by Ian McMillan. [6] Lloyd is a regular speaker at book festivals and on environment panels, and is currently Writer in Residence with Lancaster University's Future Places Centre. [7]

Books

The Gathering Tide

Her first book, The Gathering Tide: A Journey Around the Edgelands of Morecambe Bay (Saraband, 2016), is a memoir of a year spent walking the coast of this major tidal estuary, including social history, archaeology, wildlife and is also a pilgrimage through her past and present. It won the prize for Place Writing at the Lakeland Book of the Year 2016. [4] [8] Author and naturalist Mark Cocker called it "a hugely impressive debut"; while Miriam Darlington for BBC Wildlife wrote "Entrancing...sparkles with lyrical imagery-". [9]

The Blackbird Diaries

In The Blackbird Diaries: A Year With Nature (Saraband, 2017), Lloyd documents wildlife in her garden in the Lakes and travels to the Shropshire Hills to the UK's leading curlew recovery project, Curlew Country, to document the diminishing numbers of lowland curlews. She also records her responses to the light of the Hebridean midsummer on the isle of Mull, a nighttime trip to the island of Staffa, and her encounters with sea eagles and otters. The book received the art and literature prize at the Lakeland Book of the Year Awards in 2018. The Great Outdoors wrote, "The writing is beautiful and insightful, with a clarity and attention to detail." [10] while Caught by the River found it "captivating." [11]

Abundance: Nature in Recovery

Lloyd's latest publication Abundance: Nature in Recovery (Bloomsbury, UK and US 2021), is a book of literary essays that express cautious hope for the regeneration of nature, including a Romanian project restoring Transylvanian forests, the return of the wolf to the Netherlands, and the return of the Imperial Eagle to the Hungarian Steppe. Lloyd also revisits her home territory in a discussion of climate change and land regeneration in the Lake District, where the restoration of soils slows rainfall and is driving the return of pollinators. Tim Smit, co-founder of the Eden Project said, "If I was to recommend one book people should read for their well-being it would be this." [12] The Spectator described the book as dealing with ways that can help to "unlock many of our wider problems," and that the writing is "full of exuberant delight." [2]

The book was Longlisted for the 2022 James Cropper Wainwright Prize for International Conservation. [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eric Morecambe</span> English comedian (1926–1984)

John Eric Bartholomew, known by his stage name Eric Morecambe, was an English comedian who together with Ernie Wise formed the double act Morecambe and Wise. The partnership lasted from 1941 until Morecambe's death in 1984. Morecambe took his stage name from his home town, the seaside resort of Morecambe in Lancashire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eurasian curlew</span> Species of bird

The Eurasian curlew or common curlew is a very large wader in the family Scolopacidae. It is one of the most widespread of the curlews, breeding across temperate Europe and Asia. In Europe, this species is often referred to just as the "curlew", and in Scotland known as the "whaup" in Scots.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Morecambe Bay</span> Estuary in northwest England

Morecambe Bay is an estuary in north-west England, just to the south of the Lake District National Park. It is the largest expanse of intertidal mudflats and sand in the United Kingdom, covering a total area of 120 sq mi (310 km2). In 1974, the second largest gas field in the UK was discovered 25 mi (40 km) west of Blackpool, with original reserves of over 7 trillion cubic feet (tcf). At its peak, 15% of Britain's gas supply came from the bay but production is now in decline. Morecambe Bay is also an important wildlife site, with abundant birdlife and varied marine habitats.

Richard Thomas Mabey is a writer and broadcaster, chiefly on the relations between nature and culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruth Padel</span> British poet, novelist and non-fiction author

Ruth Sophia Padel FRSL FZS is a British poet, novelist and non-fiction author, known for her poetic explorations of migration, both animal and human, and her involvement with classical music, wildlife conservation and Greece, ancient and modern. She is Trustee for conservation charity New Networks for Nature, has served on the board of the Zoological Society of London and was Professor of Poetry at King's College London from 2013 to 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Cocker</span> British author and naturalist (born 1959)

Mark Cocker is a British author and naturalist. He lives with his wife, Mary Muir, and two daughters in Claxton, Norfolk. The countryside around Claxton is a theme for two of his twelve books.

Horatio Clare is a Welsh author known for travel, memoir, nature and children's books, and his writing and broadcasting on mental health and psychiatry. He worked at the BBC as a producer on Front Row, Night Waves and The Verb. He is a senior lecturer in creative non-fiction at the University of Manchester.

Alexander Desmond Hawkins, OBE, better known as Desmond Hawkins, was an author, editor and radio personality who worked as a features producer for the BBC, particularly of nature programmes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grace Dent</span> British columnist, broadcaster and author (born 1973)

Grace Dent is a British columnist, broadcaster and author. She is a restaurant critic for The Guardian and from 2011 to 2017 wrote a restaurant column for the Evening Standard. She is a regular critic on the BBC's MasterChef UK and has appeared on Channel 4's television series Very British Problems.

<i>Natures Great Events</i> BBC wildlife documentary television series

Nature's Great Events is a wildlife documentary series made for BBC television, first shown in the UK on BBC One and BBC HD in February 2009. The series looks at how seasonal changes powered by the sun cause shifting weather patterns and ocean currents, which in turn create the conditions for some of the planet's most spectacular wildlife events. Each episode focuses on the challenges and opportunities these changes present to a few key species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Driven grouse shooting</span> Hunting of the red grouse

Driven grouse shooting is a field sport in the United Kingdom involving the shooting of red grouse. It is one of two forms of the sport, the other is walked-up shooting. Driven grouse shooting involves grouse being driven to fly over people with shotguns in fixed positions. In walked-up shooting the participants walk forward in a line and flush the birds as they go. Walked-up shooting is more physically demanding than a driven shoot and typically involves fewer birds being shot.

John Alec Baker was an English author, best known for The Peregrine, which won the Duff Cooper Prize in 1967.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marion Shoard</span> British writer and campaigner (born 1949)

Marion Shoard is a British writer and campaigner. She is best known for her work concerning access to the countryside and land use conflicts. In 2002 she became the first person to give a name to the "edgelands" between town and country. Since 2004 she has also written and campaigned about older people's issues.

<i>The Outrun</i> 2016 nature and recovery memoir

The Outrun is a 2016 memoir by the Scottish journalist and author Amy Liptrot. It is set in Orkney, her childhood home, where she returned to rehabilitate after becoming an alcoholic in London. The book combines nature writing with self-reflection. It won her the 2016 Wainwright Prize and the 2017 PEN/Ackerley Prize.

Patty Paine is an American poet, author, and scholar from Vernon, New Jersey. She is the author of five poetry collections and the co-editor of two anthologies of Arabian literature. In 2007, Paine established Diode Poetry Journal and founded the small press Diode Editions in 2012. Paine is an Associate Professor and Director of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Virginia Commonwealth University - Qatar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Colwell</span> Environmentalist and producer and author

Mary Colwell is an English environmentalist author and producer. She previously worked for the BBC Natural History Unit. She is founder and director of the charity Curlew Action and Chair of the Curlew Recovery Partnership England, a Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs initiated roundtable dedicated to reversing the decline of the Eurasian Curlew.

Dara Seamus McAnulty is a naturalist, writer and environmental campaigner from Northern Ireland. He is the youngest ever winner of the RSPB Medal and received the Wainwright Prize for UK nature writing in 2020 after being the youngest author to be shortlisted for the award.

Lee Schofield is a British naturalist and nature writer. He wrote Wild Fell: Fighting for Nature on a Lake District Hill Farm, which describes his work as site manager for the RSPB at Haweswater in the Lake District National Park.

Amy-Jane Beer is a British naturalist, writer and campaigner. Her 2022 book The Flow: Rivers, Water and Wildness won the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing.

Nicola Chester is a British nature writer. She is a regular columnist in The Guardian and in the RSPB's magazine, and has written a memoir On Gallows Down.

References

  1. 1 2 "Reimagining the Lake District". theecologist.org. 27 July 2020.
  2. 1 2 Cocker, Mark (7 October 2021). "Beavers, not concrete barriers, can save Britain from floods | The Spectator". www.spectator.co.uk.
  3. ↑ "Karen Lloyd | The Guardian". the Guardian.
  4. 1 2 "Covid-19 and Reimagining the Lake District". Goldsmiths, University of London.
  5. ↑ "Home". Dark Mountain.
  6. ↑ "2020 - Ruskin's View Panel Discussion". BBC Music Events.
  7. ↑ "Writer In Residence". www.lancaster.ac.uk.
  8. ↑ "Nature Writing: Karen Lloyd & Mark Cocker, Guest: Linda Cracknell".
  9. ↑ Lloyd, Karen (January 1, 2022). The Gathering Tide : A Journey Around the Edgelands of Morecambe Bay. Saraband. ISBN   978-1-915089-07-6 – via books.telegraph.co.uk.
  10. ↑ "Book review: The Blackbird Diaries by Karen Lloyd". April 6, 2018.
  11. ↑ "The Blackbird Diaries | Caught by the River | Caught by the River". www.caughtbytheriver.net.
  12. ↑ "Karen Lloyd: Abundance – Nature in Recovery". August 24, 2021.
  13. ↑ "James Cropper Wainwright Prize 2022 longlists announced".
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.