James Canton

I have written widely in creative non-fiction forms and taught on the MA in Wild Writing at the University of Essex since its inception in 2009. I have run many workshops to encourage writing on nature and landscape, and worked on Radio 4 detailing the writing and landscapes of Essex such as for ‘Something Understood’ on John Clare and Epping Forest (August 2014) and ‘Open Country’ on Tollesbury Wick and literary Essex (November 2015).

My books include Out of Essex: Re-Imagining a Literary Landscape (2013) which was inspired by rural wanderings in the county and Ancient Wonderings: Journeys into Prehistoric Britain (2017) that tells some remarkable tales of life in ancient Britain. The Oak Papers (2020) – Radio 4’s Book of the Week – explores some of the ties between humans and oaks since prehistory, meditating on our need to connect with the natural world. My latest book, Grounded (Canongate, 2023) tells of rediscovering the most sacred spaces in our landscapes – both natural sites and human places – seeing the lessons we can learn from our ancestors and their relationship with the land. My forthcoming book, Renaturing (due out March 2025) investigates ways of democratising rewilding, how we can all be involved in nature restoration.