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 rural Suffolk, the setting for the hit podcast which accompanies this book, also called The Stubborn Light of Things. @M_Z_Harrison.
PRAISE FOR ALL AMONG THE BARLEY Brilliant and timely ... an important book by a writer of great gifts. -- Robert Macfarlane A work of rare magic. -- Helen Macdonald I've been following Melissa Harrison's work with interest for some time now, and with this novel she's done what I've long suspected she would: she's written a masterpiece. -- Jon McGregor A nature writer if ever there was one. -- Ali Smith The journal of a writer to compare to Thomas Hardy ... Melissa Harrison is among our most celebrated nature writers. -- Times If you haven't heard Harrison's soul-soothing podcast, then this eponymous nature diary, following her move from south London to the Suffolk countryside, should be a joyful reason to do so. It's the perfect companion piece to this chronicle of her journey to uncover the nature that lurks, often unnoticed, on our doorsteps wherever we live, and celebrate its way of signalling the seasons. -- National Geographic There's something for every flora and fauna enthusiast in Melissa Harrison's new book ... inspirational. -- BBC Wildlife Magazine [Harrison] reflects on the changing habitat around her with passionate understanding and gentle encouragement that we follow suit. -- Guardian Reading The Stubborn Light of Things is like stumbling headlong into a bath of joy. -- Bookmunch