Wren & Quill
A small publication on British nature writing, how to read it and how to begin a notebook of your own
The first number · 2026Contents
Part the First: Reading
- IWhere to start with British nature writing22 Oct
You do not need to begin at the beginning. A first shelf, chosen by what sort of reader you are.
- IIWhy The Living Mountain waited thirty years14 Jul
Nan Shepherd finished her book about the Cairngorms in the 1940s. It reached print in 1977. The delay is a shorter story than the legend suggests.
Part the Second: History
- IIIWhy people still read Gilbert White11 Aug
A country curate writes letters about one parish, some of which he never posts. Two centuries later, they are still in print.
- IVWhat is the ‘new nature writing’?17 Sep
A magazine issue, a very sharp book review and a prize: how a loose label attached itself to a generation of British books.
Part the Third: The Notebook
- VHow to keep a nature notebook6 Oct
Nature notebooks have a habit of dying in February. Here is how to give yours a longer life, with no drawing talent required.
- VIHow to record the first signs of spring7 Nov
The study of when things happen goes by an ugly name and has a beautiful history. It also needs almost no equipment.
To the reader
This is an independent publication about a kind of book. We write about what to read in British nature writing and in what order, about where the genre came from and the arguments it has provoked, and about the much older habit underneath it, which is going outside and writing down what you saw.
We keep the essays few and check them against sources, which are listed at the foot of each one. If you have read your way somewhere we have not, we would like to hear about it. More about us is on the about page.
