This Natural Life

In this special edition of This Natural Life, His Majesty The King tells Martha Kearney about his lifelong passion for nature and the environment. As they walk together through the walled garden at Dumfries House in Ayrshire, the King reflects on how his love of the natural world began in childhood and discusses topics ranging from school farms and marine conservation to the art of topiary and the joy of secateurs. Martha also talks to young people and tutors on educational schemes based at the two thousand acre estate, which is owned by the King’s Foundation.Photo courtesy of the King's FoundationProducer: Emma Campbell

Dara McAnulty, a 21-year-old Northern Irish naturalist currently studying at Cambridge, is home for the winter break. He takes Martha Kearney to one of his favourite places nearby - the Murlough National Nature Reserve in the Mourne Mountains. This special landscape of ancient forest, sand dunes, and a colony of seals lies on the edge of Dundrum Bay, framed by the Mourne Mountains.Dara shares his deep connection to this place and explains why he loves visiting in all weathers. He reflects on his journey into the natural world, beginning with his early years in Belfast and growing up as an autistic child, finding solace, peace, and joy in the outdoors - and then writing about his experiences.His debut book, Diary of a Young Naturalist, won the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing in 2020, among other accolades, and he is the youngest ever winner of the RSPB Medal. Dara has also written three children’s books: Wild Child: A Journey Through Nature, A Wild Child’s Book of Birds, and A Wild Child's Guide to Nature at Night.Producer: Eliza Lomas

Martha Kearney meets Jane Anderson, one of the UK's leading physicians in HIV medicine, to learn about the living library of plants at Chelsea Physic Garden. Since childhood, Jane has always been a huge lover of plants and their many remarkable uses - for food, for medicine, for health and wellbeing. As they walk around the medicinal plant beds, she speaks about human health and planetary health, and how they are both completely interconnected. Producer: Becky Ripley

Emma Pinchbeck is the Chief Executive Officer of the Climate Change Committee - the independent body which advises the government on emissions targets and the impacts of climate change. She grew up in the Cotswolds, where Martha Kearney meets her to hear about her love of the Gloucestershire countryside. Emma talks about her childhood in the Stroud valleys, where her family roots go back twelve generations and where she is now bringing up her own children. She explains how deeply-rooted her connection to the natural world is - influencing everything from her choice of college as a teenager to her decision to give up a job in finance and work instead in the environmental sector.Producer: Emma Campbell

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.

The author Jeanette Winterson grew up in Accrington in Lancashire, but has made her home in a village in rural Gloucestershire. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the publication of her best-known novel 'Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit'. In this programme she talks to Martha Kearney, giving her unique access to the garden of her cottage, where she grows her own fruit and vegetables. She explains why nature, wildlife and life in the countryside are so important to her, as she gives Martha a tour of her veg patch.Producer: Emma Campbell

Martha Kearney travels to one of Britain's most isolated islands where the illustrator of books by the likes of Simon Armitage and Isabella Tree seeks her inspiration among the seabird colonies of Fair Isle.Angela Harding's lino-cut prints are an integral part of the recent boom in nature writing. Dynamic birds or mammals dominate the foreground while abstract interpretations of landscape set them in the context of wild shores and woodlands. Martha catches up with Angela as she searches for fresh inspiration on an artist's retreat on Fair Isle, a tiny island halfway between Orkney and Shetland.They take a walk along the steep cliffs of the island's southside, meeting puffins, kittiwakes and fulmars and discuss Angela's determination to make her career as an artist.Producer: Alasdair Cross

Lira Valencia grew up in Croydon, the daughter of refugee parents from South America. In this programme she shows Martha Kearney around the Walthamstow Wetlands nature reserve in London, where she now works as a ranger. She tells Martha about the passion for wildlife which she has had ever since she was a small child. Growing up in a flat with no outdoor space, her favourite place was her grandmother's back garden in Streatham, where she discovered a fascination with snails which endures to this day. She talks about the barriers which she had to overcome in order to work in the conservation sector, and explains how she'd like to be a role model for other children from diverse and urban backgrounds with a passion for wildlife.Producer: Emma Campbell

Antony Gormley's sculptures on Crosby beach are one his best-known works. In this programme, he shows Martha Kearney around the sculptures, and talks about his relationship with the natural world - especially the sea. The artwork in Merseyside consists of one hundred male figures cast in metal, and based on Antony's own body. As they are submerged with the rising and falling tides, their form evolves and changes, and they become rusty and encrusted with sealife. He describes one of them as "a participatory artwork made by me and a whole community of barnacles." As they stroll along the shore listening to the seabirds, Martha asks Antony about the inspiration he draws from the natural world, and what it means to him.Producer: Emma Campbell

Charlotte Church rose to global fame at just eleven years old, renowned for the extraordinary purity of her singing voice. From growing up in what she describes as a working-class household in Cardiff, her career took her to the world’s grandest stages, performing for audiences which included the Pope and the U.S. President, and releasing best-selling albums. But that early fame also came with its own set of challenges, some of which, she explains, she is still "not quite grateful for, yet... but what teaching!" Today, Charlotte’s preferred concert hall is something entirely different: the vast and spectacular landscape of the Cambrian Mountains in mid-Wales. Here, she has established a rural retreat. Tucked away in the Nant Caethon Valley and framed by two waterfalls, it’s a place of healing – for herself and for those she welcomes.Charlotte serves as a guide to Martha Kearney, sharing why this place holds such deep meaning for her. She speaks about her efforts to restore and protect the Celtic rainforest she now calls herself a guardian of. Together, they reflect on Charlotte’s journey – from a child star with little connection to nature, to someone now deeply immersed in the natural world.Producer: Eliza Lomas