Nicola Davies is the author of almost 100 books for children and, on this episode of Ecolution, she speaks with us about her Carnegie Medal-nominated book The Song That Sings Us.
Nicola talks about how tackling nature loss and climate change in her books is so vital, the power of using our own voice, and the reasons why she feels hopeful about the future.
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Nicola has written everything from fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Her work has been published in more than 10 different languages and has won major awards in the UK, US, France, Italy and Germany. And she joined us to discuss her new series. Her Carnegie Medal-nominated book The Song That Sings Us, has garnered much critical acclaim and is in paperback now, with its follow-up, Skrimsli, now available in hardback.
The Song That Sings Us is a novel set in a fantasy world, where gifted humans have always been able to talk to animals. But, in a really wonderful way it mirrors our world and offers a chance to investigate our own connection with the natural environment.
Nicola trained as a zoologist. She spent some years as a field biologist and studied humpback and sperm whales, and bats, before joining the BBC Natural History Unit as a researcher and then presenter on the first incarnation of The Really Wild Show with Chris Packham.
In her own words, Nicola says, "I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t utterly besotted with animals. I spent all my time before I went to school in the garden with my lovely Grandpa (who was small and round and had all sorts of things in his cardigan pockets) looking at flowers, and ants and bird’s nests.
My parents moved around quite a lot so I was always the new girl in school, which meant I spent a lot of time on my own reading and thinking...still my two favourite recreational activities. What finally saved me at school was that I learnt to make people laugh. But I was still mostly by myself, alone, out in the fields in Suffolk where my parents then lived, walking my dog and listening to the skylarks."
To find out more listen in. And afterwards you can head to her website to find out more.
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