Melissa Harrison

Harrison was born in Effingham Junction, Surrey in 1975.^[2] She attended a comprehensive school before studying English Literature at Lincoln College, Oxford at the University of Oxford, graduating in 1996.^[1][2][3] After graduating, she worked as a freelance magazine subeditor, while contributing a regular "Nature Notes" column in The Times,^[4] columns for The Guardian and contributions to radio and television.^[5]

Her first novel, Clay, was published by Bloomsbury in January 2013, followed by At Hawthorn Time in 2015.^[6] Her non-fiction books include Rain: Four Walks in English Weather (2016).^[7] A third novel, All Among the Barley, was published in August 2018.^[8] Her short story "The Black Dog" was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2017^[9] and she has contributed episodes to the channel's Tweet of the Day programme.^[10] She has also made appearances on the BBC Two series Springwatch.^[11] During the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown, she began a nature diary podcast called The Stubborn Light of Things which formed the basis of a new memoir published in November 2020 that outlined her move from urban London to rural Suffolk.^[12] Her first children's novel, By Ash, Oak and Thorn was published by Chicken House Books in May 2021.^[13]