Talia Randall talks to the nature-loving pioneers who are smashing down the barriers–visible and invisible–that keep so many of us locked out of green space. From a park in Glasgow, to a beach in Cornwall and a Traveller site by an A road in London.
Nature can help us work out who we are. Take Ione, a British-Mexican land worker who finally understood what it meant to have a mixed identity when she saw a Mexican plant growing in English soil. As a kid, Talia broke into the nature reserve on her council estate. Some call this trespassing, others call it playing out. Which children are allowed to play in nature freely and which kids are seen as a threat? Now that Talia isn’t that kid anymore, she reflects on her own relationship to nature, has it changed as her class has?
Talia Randall talks to the nature-loving pioneers who are smashing down the barriers–visible and invisible–that keep so many of us locked out of green space. From a park in Glasgow, to a beach in Cornwall and a Traveller site by an A road in London.
Nature can help us work out who we are. Take Ione, a British-Mexican land worker who finally understood what it meant to have a mixed identity when she saw a Mexican plant growing in English soil. As a kid, Talia broke into the nature reserve on her council estate. Some call this trespassing, others call it playing out. Which children are allowed to play in nature freely and which kids are seen as a threat? Now that Talia isn’t that kid anymore, she reflects on her own relationship to nature, has it changed as her class has?
Talia Randall meets three nature writers who don’t fit the traditional mould. Is nature writing only for old, posh guys, she asks. It might sound like a niche question but it opens up some incredible conversations about the nature of identity and the nature of us. Disabled nature poet, Jamie Hale, founder of the working class nature writing prize, Natasha Carthew and writer Anita Sethi are challenging the gatekeepers to let more people into this exclusive club. And they make Talia wonder - could she ever call herself a nature writer?
Produced, Written and Presented by Talia Randall Researcher: Erica McKoy Contributors: Natasha Carthew, Jamie Hale, Anita Sethi Production Mentor: Anna Buckley Tech Producer: Gayl Gordon Executive Producers: Khaliq Meer & Leanne Alie Commissioned for BBC Sounds Audio Lab by Khaliq Meer Artwork by: Mike Massaro