Welcome to your own, personal nature journal, and a new way of being in the world. A year-long course in noticing, you can start in any month and follow the stories unfolding around you - wherever you live. Featuring monthly guides, birdsong to listen out for, beautiful illustrations, checklists and tips, Homecoming will help you connect to nature, boost your wellbeing and plug you back into the rhythm of the seasons. Write down the very best thing you experience in nature each day and learn how to establish your own rituals, high points and habits to carry you through the year.
Melissa Harrison is a novelist and nature writer. She contributes a monthly Nature Notebook column to The Times and writes for the FT Weekend, the Guardian and the New Statesman. Her most recent novel, All Among the Barley, was the UK winner of the European Union Prize for Literature. It was a Waterstones Paperback of the Year and a Book of the Year in the Observer, the New Statesman and the Irish Times. Her previous books have been shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction (At Hawthorn Time) and the Wainwright Prize (Rain). She lives in Suffolk.
"Nobody writes about the natural world like her"
– India Knight
"A simple, friendly and – above all – accessible nature journal for anyone who wants to notice more of the world around them. In Homecoming, Melissa Harrison invites us to connect more deeply to the natural world, in a comfortable and friendly space akin to chatting over a cup of tea. Never has there been a more important time to pick up a nature journal, but never has there been a nicer way to learn. Featuring monthly guides, birdsong to listen out for, little hints and absolutely gorgeous illustrations, Homecoming deserves to be the go-to guide for a rewilding generation"
– Kate Bradbury