Karen Lloyd is an English author, poet, and environmental activist from the

Lake District The Lake District, also known as the Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes, forests, and mountains (or ''fells''), and its associations with William Wordswor ...

. She is the author of ''The Gathering Tide'' (Saraband 2016) (selected as one of ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

'' Writers’ Books of the Year in 2016), ''The Blackbird Diaries'' (Saraband 2017) and ''Abundance: Nature in Recovery'' (

Bloomsbury Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural, intellectual, and educational institutions. Bloomsbury is home of the British Museum, the largest mus ...

2021). Her writing has been published in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' and various magazines and journals, including '' BBC Countryfile'', '' The Ecologist'' and Goldsmiths scholarly communications. Her essays have been published on

Dark Mountain Dark Mountain, formerly also known as Black Mountain, is a mountain in the Tanzilla Plateau of the Northern Interior of British Columbia, Canada, located northeast of the settlement of Dease Lake, near Cry Lake. Before 1937 Dark Mountain was kn ...

('Inside the Rockpool Shrimp there is a Dying Star') on Mark Avery's Blog and in the forthcoming edition of ''Bending Genre: Essays on Creative Nonfiction'' (Bloomsbury Academic). In spring 2020, after lockdown, she was commissioned by the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

to write a poem in response to Ruskin's View in Kirkby Lonsdale, and appeared on

BBC 3 BBC Three is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes targeting 16 to 34-year-olds, covering all genres including animation, comedy, curre ...

arts programme ''The Verb'', hosted by Ian McMillan. Lloyd is a regular speaker at book festivals and on environment panels, and is currently Writer in Residence with

Lancaster University Lancaster University (legally The University of Lancaster) is a public university, public research university in Lancaster, Lancashire, Lancaster, Lancashire, England. The university was established in 1964 by royal charter, as one of several pla ...

's Future Places Centre.

Books

The Gathering Tide

Her first book, ''The Gathering Tide: A Journey Around the Edgelands of

Morecambe Bay Morecambe Bay is a large estuary in northwest England, just to the south of the Lake District National Park. It is the largest expanse of intertidal mudflats and sand in the United Kingdom, covering a total area of . In 1974, the second larges ...

'' (Saraband, 2016), is a memoir of a year spent walking the coast of this major tidal estuary, including social history, archaeology, wildlife and is also a pilgrimage through her past and present. It won the prize for Place Writing at the Lakeland Book of the Year 2016. Author and naturalist

Mark Cocker Mark Cocker (born 1959) is a British author and naturalist. He lives with his wife, Mary Muir, and two daughters in Claxton, Norfolk; the countryside around Claxton is a theme for two of his twelve books. Cocker has written extensively for ...

called it "a hugely impressive debut"; while Miriam Darlington for ''

BBC Wildlife ''BBC Wildlife'' is a British glossy, all-colour magazine about wildlife, operated and published by Immediate Media Company. It produces 13 issues a year. ''BBC Wildlife'' was launched in January 1963 as ''Animals Magazine'', edited by filmmaker ...

'' wrote "Entrancing...sparkles with lyrical imagery-".

The Blackbird Diaries

In ''The Blackbird Diaries: A Year With Nature'' (Saraband, 2017), Lloyd documents wildlife in her garden in the Lakes and travels to the Shropshire Hills to the UK's leading curlew recovery project, Curlew Country, to document the diminishing numbers of lowland curlews. She also records her responses to the light of the Hebridean midsummer on the

isle of Mull The Isle of Mull ( gd, An t-Eilean Muileach ) or just Mull (; gd, Muile, links=no ) is the second-largest island of the Inner Hebrides (after Skye) and lies off the west coast of Scotland in the Council areas of Scotland, council area of Arg ...

, a nighttime trip to the island of Staffa, and her encounters with sea eagles and otters. The book received the art and literature prize at the Lakeland Book of the Year Awards in 2018. '' The Great Outdoors'' wrote, "The writing is beautiful and insightful, with a clarity and attention to detail." while ''Caught by the River'' found it "captivating."

Abundance: Nature in Recovery

Lloyd's latest publication ''Abundance: Nature in Recovery'' (Bloomsbury, UK and US 2021), is a book of literary essays that express cautious hope for the regeneration of nature, including a

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

n project restoring

Transylvania Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...

n forests, the return of the

wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly u ...

to the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, and the return of the

Imperial Eagle The eagle is used in heraldry as a charge, as a supporter, and as a crest. Heraldic eagles can be found throughout world history like in the Achaemenid Empire or in the present Republic of Indonesia. The European post-classical symbolism of the ...

to the Hungarian Steppe. Lloyd also revisits her home territory in a discussion of

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

and land regeneration in the Lake District, where the restoration of soils slows rainfall and is driving the return of pollinators.

Tim Smit Sir Timothy Bartel Smit KBE (born 25 September 1954) is a Dutch-born British businessman, famous for his work on the Lost Gardens of Heligan, the Eden Project, and the Charlestown Shipwreck & Treasure Centre, all in Cornwall, England. Early li ...

, co-founder of the

Eden Project The Eden Project ( kw, Edenva) is a visitor attraction in Cornwall, England, UK. The project is located in a reclaimed china clay pit, located from the town of St Blazey and from the larger town of St Austell.Ordnance Survey (2005). ''OS E ...

said, "If I was to recommend one book people should read for their well-being it would be this." ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...

'' described the book as dealing with ways that can help to "unlock many of our wider problems," and that the writing is "full of exuberant delight." The book was Longlisted for the 2022 James Cropper

Wainwright Prize The Wainwright Prize is a literary prize awarded annually for the best work of general outdoors, nature and UK-based travel writing. In 2020 it was split into the Wainwright Prize for UK nature writing and the Wainwright Prize for writing on globa ...

for International Conservation.

References

External links

Karen Lloyd website

Spectator review of 'Abundance: Nature in Recovery'
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lloyd, Karen Living people British nature writers English nature writers Environmental writers British women poets English women poets British women essayists Non-fiction environmental writers Alumni of the University of Stirling Alumni of Lancaster University People from Cumbria Year of birth missing (living people)