Shortlisted for the James Cropper Wainwright Prize 2022 for Nature Writing - Highly Commended Winner for the Richard Jefferies Award 2021 for Best Nature Writing 'A rural, working-class writer in an all too rarefied field, Chester's work is unusual for depicting the countryside as it is lived on the economic margins.' The Guardian 'An important portrait of connection to the land beyond ownership or possession.' Raynor Winn 'It's ever so good. Political, passionate and personal.' Robert Macfarlane 'Evocative and inspiring...environmental protest, family, motherhood and...nature.' Claire Fuller, author of Unsettled Ground, Costa Novel Award Winner 2021 Nature is everything. It is the place I come from and the place I got to. It is family. Wherever I am, it is home and away, an escape, a bolt hole, a reason, a place to fight for, a consolation, and a way home. As a child growing up in rural England, Guardian Country Diarist Nicola Chester was inexorably drawn to the natural landscape surrounding her. Walking, listening and breathing in the nature around her, she followed the call of the cuckoo, the song of the nightingale and watched as red kites, fieldfares and skylarks soared through the endless skies over the chalk hills of the North Wessex Downs: the ancient land of Greenham Common which she called home. Nicola bears witness to, and fights against, the stark political and environmental changes imposed on the land she loves, whilst raising her family to appreciate nature and to feel like they belong - core parts of who Nicola is. From protesting the loss of ancient trees to the rewilding of Greenham Common, to the gibbet on Gallows Down and living in the shadow of Highclere Castle (made famous in Downton Abbey), On Gallows Down shows how one woman made sense of her world - and found her place in it.

Otters by Nicola Chester is an accessible and lively account of an intriguing and much-loved animal that, surprisingly, is still endangered and rarely seen despite a recent resurgence that has seen it expand from the remote countryside into our cities. Nicola's charming, informed text brings this elusive and exciting mammal into sharper focus revealing what an otter is, and how they live, feed, play and breed. Nicola reflects on how otters exist in our imaginations culturally and how that has changed over the years. She also examines the many challenges otters have faced, exposing what brought them to the brink of extinction, and explores the challenges we face in trying to find and watch otters in the wild. Each Spotlight title is carefully designed to introduce readers to the lives and behaviour of our favourite birds and mammals.

Shortlisted for the James Cropper Wainwright Prize 2022 for Nature Writing - Highly Commended Winner of the Richard Jeffries Award 2021 'It’s ever so good. Political, passionate & personal.' Robert Macfarlane (via Twitter) 'I couldn’t put it down! A must read!' Dara McAnulty (via Twitter), author of The Diary of a Young Naturalist 'An evocative and inspiring memoir.' Claire Fuller, author of Unsettled Ground and winner of Costa Novel Award 2021 Part nature writing, part memoir, On Gallows Down is an essential, unforgettable read for fans of Helen Macdonald, Melissa Harrison and Isabella Tree. On Gallows Down is a powerful, personal story shaped by a landscape deeply loved; one that ripples and undulates with protest, change, hope – and the search for home. From the girl catching the eye of the ‘peace women’ of Greenham Common to the young woman protesting the loss of ancient and beloved trees, and as a mother raising a family in tied and tenanted farm cottages on grand, country estates, this is the story of how Nicola came to write – as a means of protest. Of how she discovered the rich seam of resistance that runs through Newbury’s people from the English Civil War to the Swing Riots and the battle against the Newbury Bypass, the hope she finds in the rewilding of Greenham Common after the military left, and the stories told by the landscapes of Watership Down, the gibbet perched high on Gallows Down and Highclere Castle. Nature is indelibly linked to belonging for Nicola. She charts her story through the walks she takes with her children across the chalk hills of the North Wessex Downs, through the song of the nightingale and the red kites, fieldfares, skylarks and lapwings that accompany her; the badger cubs she watches at night; the velvety mole she discovers in her garden and the cuckoo, whose return she awaits. On Gallows Down is about how Nicola came to realise that it is she who can decide where she belongs, for home is a place in nature and imagination, which must be protected through words and actions. We are writing for our very lives and for those wild lives we share this one, lonely planet with.