Soup Talk: Karen Lloyd
“Fearless writing at its Orwellian best.” Mark Cocker
From the rainforests of Costa Rica to the Balkans and Scotland, Karen Lloyd explores the hidden life of habitats and species including sloths, the rockpool shrimp and the world’s only truly wild horse. She studies the biodiversity of urban wildflower meadows and the contested spaces of landscape recovery, including in the Lake District where she lives, assessing our human impact on the lives of creatures whose survival is deeply intertwined with our own.
In an era marked by escalating environmental crisis, this luminous collection challenges us to understand that preserving our planet demands recognising the intrinsic rights of our fellow species; that social and environmental justice are inseverable. Lloyd’s essays blend lyrical observation with urgency and philosophical depth, arguing for new directions for conservation. This collection is a rallying call – a celebration of renewal and resilience – for all who care about Earth’s future.
Praise for Earthworks
“If everyone thought as deeply as Karen Lloyd does about our complex relationship with nature, the world would be a far better place. Wisely observed and powerfully expressed, these essays form a map to navigate the anthropocene.” Lee Schofield, award-winning author of Wild Places
“Lloyd has packed the explosives, lit the fuse and lobbed in our direction the bravest and boldest volume of Nature writing this century. And then she’s walked towards the fire. This is fearless writing at its Orwellian best.”
Mark Cocker, multi-award-winning author and naturalist
“An intensely optimistic book, where hope comes not from denial, but from a careful and studied attention to the natural world – both the writing and the thinking are precise, vivid and engaging: it’s a delight to spend time in the company of this writer.” Jenn Ashworth, award-winning author
“In this brilliant collection … Lloyd’s writing is realistic, unsentimental, and refuses any romanticisation of ‘nature’ but, at the same time, evinces a deep love of, and respect for the environment in all its complexities.”
Professor Charlie Gere, Lancaster University
“In Earthworks, Karen Lloyd again confirms herself as one of our most vital and ambitious writers on nature and place… Few writers evoke so powerfully, and so personally, both the wounds and the wonder of the living world.” Professor Ian Convery, IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management Vice Chair
About the author
Karen Lloyd is an award-winning writer of non-fiction and poetry, and an academic and teacher, based in Kendal, Cumbria. Her 2022 book, Abundance, was longlisted for the Wainwright Prize for Conservation Writing. Both her debut, The Gathering Tide, and her second book, The Blackbird Diaries, won Lakeland Book Awards and were selected as books of the year, in the Observer and the Birdwatcher’s Handbook. She has contributed to the Guardian, Royal Geographical Society magazine, BBC Wildlife and Countryfile, and she edited and produced Curlew Calling Anthology. Karen gained her PhD from Lancaster University, where she taught on the Creative Writing MA and was writer in residence at the university’s Future Places Centre.
SOUP TALK ETIQUETTE
If you’re having soup please arrive in good time (ie. by 6pm at the latest) to have it before the talks starts!
