This Natural Life Sarah Perry
Nov 27, 2025
In this fascinating conversation, novelist Sarah Perry, known for integrating nature into her fiction, takes us to the enchanting rook and jackdaw roost in Norfolk. She shares how this magical sight fills her with comfort and reflects on the deep emotional ties between humans and the natural world. Sarah critiques commodified views of nature, emphasizing its integral role in our lives. With charming anecdotes about her upbringing and writing, she illustrates how landscapes can take on lives of their own in literature and inspire hope for wildlife conservation.
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Dusk Corvid Choreography
- Sarah Perry describes the dusk ritual when rooks and jackdaws gather and then simultaneously lift into the treetops.
- She likens the moment to a conductor signalling bedtime, calling it magical and comforting.
Nature Offers Temporal Perspective
- Watching communal bird behaviour gives Sarah Perry a sense of long continuity beyond present anxieties.
- She says the birds' ancient communal rituals make her see the long arc of time, not just our brief moment.
Bookish Childhood Shaped A Novelist
- Sarah recounts a bookish, TV-free childhood in Chelmsford that let her imagination “run riot.”
- She links solitary reading and a big garden to formative training for becoming a novelist.
