About

About my work

My work focuses on landscape and nature and our creative and cultural responses to it. I believe that creativity is nurtured by spending time outside, in observation and enjoyment of the natural world. My writing stems from things I see while walking through the landscape, from research, and from interviews with people. This is carried through in the workshops I lead and in research projects that I undertake.

I enjoy taking the photographs that support the writing on my website. All photos are taken by me and remain copyrighted to me, except some close-up species photos separately credited.

I hope you enjoy your visit to my site.

Writing & Editorial

I write poetry and prose about landscape and its cultural connections, exploring the history and nature of our landscapes. I am particularly interested in unpeeling the layers of history, geological and human, to understand how our landscapes have developed, what they mean to us and how we relate to them.

With my professional background in landscape policy and practice, I am available to commission creative writing, particularly in essay form, and analysis of landscape and environmental issues. Please contact me for more information.

I am interested in collaborative writing which explores the nature culture dimension and uses creativity to respond to today’s environmental issues.

Arboreal Archway by Melinda Appleby

Research

I carry out research into cultural connections to place. This includes relationships with particular landscapes, environments and places as well as everyday connections to birds, animals, plants and insect life.

I am interested in work that bridges the sciences and the arts.

Other research areas include project work for Waveney & Blyth Arts. In 2015, I coordinated a project for them on Doggerland, the Mesolithic lands drowned by post-glacial rising sea levels, now disappeared under the North Sea. This brought together specialist researchers and a group of artists to reflect on an extraordinary period of our history and create new art works in response to the science.

Doggerland may hold lessons for us—living through another period of climate change with its impact on places and people. Loss of land, loss of homes, migration – these are all common themes.

Please get in touch if you’d like to learn more about my work

Contact Me