THE MODERN MINT BLOG
Great Nature Writing
Here are a few recommendations for great nature writing – some are free, some will take you elsewhere to buy the book…
All are well worth reading though, as they don’t just write about nature – but politics, capitalism, the economy and romance too…
The Pain You Feel Is Capitalism Dying
Reason 2: Damage Built Up in the Natural World
There is no such thing as an economy that exists without the physical world. The delusional idea that markets are separate from nature has guided mainstream economic policy for a long time — and now we are seeing the consequences in mass extinctions, loss of topsoils, climate change, collapse of fish stocks in the world ocean, rising levels of pollution, and more.
Writer: Joe Brewer
… the upland habitats we have chosen to conserve seem to be almost as dead, impoverished and lacking in structure or complexity as a parking lot… without trees, large predators, wild herbivores, rotting wood or many other components of a thriving ecosystem, these places retain only a few worn strands of the complex web of life.
Writer: George Monbiot
How could intelligent beings seek to control a few unwanted species by a method that contaminated the entire environment and brought the threat of disease and death even to their own kind?
Writer Rachel Carson
What Has Nature Ever Done For Us?
“In an interview, he was quoted as saying… natural resources are limited, and I need to take them before they’re gone.”
Writer: Tony Juniper
And to end this blog on nature writing we offer you ‘Death of the Naturalist’ – why is nature writing now so tame?
Can you make your nature writing great?
The Amelia Project – Episode 88: Didius Julianus
Friends of mine write a sitcom podcast called The Amelia Project (I wrote about this years ago, when they started it….!) December 2024 I had some fun playing the tiny part of Fornio in episode 88 – Didius Julianus. I have not listened to the episode yet, as I am clearly not an actor… and the thought of listening to my dulcet tones for the few minutes I’m in it just… makes me feel ill. But the recording and being in the studio was great fun, the real actors were hilarious and the script is brilliant – not just funny, …
Waltham Place Topiary Workshop 2026
With the European Boxwood and Topiary Society, I run two workshops each year at Waltham Place, one of my favourite gardens. The next topiary workshop there will be on Friday September 4th 2026. Details and how to book yet to be announced, but get in touch with them now to get on the waiting list, as last year we had double the amount of people wanting a place than we had space for. The Waltham Place website is here – topiary workshop 2026. See the teaching page for how else I can help you with the topiary in your garden …
Box Hill – Novella by Adam Mars-Jones
I picked this book up back in 2020 because of the title – Box Hill – fabulous, I thought, a book about boxwood. I’ll peruse this for its respective thoughts on the plant I clip most when I make topiary. I didn’t read the blurb on the back. Didn’t know the author (although I knew the publisher, Fitzcarraldo Editions, as I love many of the essays they have published… so trusted the author would be worth spending time with.) By page 2 I realised this novel wasn’t quite what I had expected. I started the book at 10pm, after getting …