Recommended by Bee Lilyjones
Amanda's Substack draws on thirty years of zookeeping to reveal with humour and tenderness how animals transform our thinking. Her weekly posts remind us we're all part of the same animal family, more alike than different. Science confirms these connections boost mental health and reduce anxiety. Subscribe for positivity from someone who knows understanding animals is one path toward healing ourselves and our troubled world.
Julia's Substack and her art practice demands your deepest attention: Julia is a cartographer of invisible harmonies, weaves sensorial landscapes where sound becomes touch and ecology speaks through resonance. Her art creates sanctuaries transforming crisis into communion, inviting contemplative passage between our inner wilderness and Earth's forgotten voice.
I've known Donna - visual artist, writer, eco-feminist, mother - and admired her writing since the early days of writing school The Novelry. Through her words, you cross thresholds, where observation becomes communion with the natural world, where unforced language carries the weight of moss and stone. Her voice deserves a wider audience on here, subscribe to her Substack, show her some support why don't you.
An immersive, beautiful newsletter that serves as my passport to America's wild spaces. I've found myself transported from my corner of England to a remote Idaho post office where rides come in farm trucks, and to the northern edges of Vermont where ducks and chickens roam amid sprawling gardens. What a great reminder that the best nature writing doesn't just show us the outdoors – it helps us find our own path through it.
Well I love Sarah's writing and photography because the places she mostly writes about, in Kintyre, Scotland, I hold dear. And then there's Sarah's friend Billy, a handsome Border Collie. Woodland Wonderings is easy-to-read place writing that engages all my senses, inspires me, makes me think deeply about woodland.
I love my friend Jane's writing, whether of badgers in moonlight or everyday domestic scenes, I love the way she sees beauty in overlooked corners. I'm drawn to her honesty about balancing caregiving with creative pursuits, and her nature photography brings me closer to Dorset. Her words are a deep breath in a busy day.
Medieval Musings is Holly Brown's vibrant newsletter and community, where this Oxford Archaeology DPhil student illuminates the Middle Ages beyond just kings, battles, and castles (though she loves them all). Holly creates accessible content and fresh perspectives, creating connections between modern readers and our medieval past. Subscribe to support a dedicated scholar making medieval history accessible while juggling the demands of motherhood and doctoral research.
Writing that grounds me in the rhythms of nature while weaving together thoughtful observations on creativity, history, rural living... reading Mel's words I sometimes feel like I'm sitting in her Suffolk cottage with a cup of tea and a slice of cake. Each newsletter feels like a letter from a friend, one who notices the herringbone brick floor worn into dips by centuries of footsteps and appreciates both the history and the present moment.
I've known Yasmin - writer, mentor and - that rare thing - down-to-earth, academic - since her Home and Place Writing first captivated me. Her Substack combines text, photography, and video into a true resource. She shares her journey from landlocked Cambridgeshire to Scotland's shores, exploring seaweeds, tides, and dilapidated spaces that, like Ballard's abandoned casino, 'push readers off-balance.' Subscribe to experience her unique perspective on how environments shape our experiences.
Mark's sections from 'Abundance' feel like conversations with an old friend who notices everything: oystercatchers calling across the estuary, the ghost of a long-closed pub, the way memory ripples through landscape... Oh and the recipes. It's all wonderful stuff.