Diary of a Young Naturalist, Dara McAnulty
Evocative, raw and lyrical, this startling debut explores the natural world through the eyes of Dara McAnulty, an autistic teenager coping with the uprooting of home, school, and his mental health, while pursuing his life as a conservationist and environmental activist.
Shifting from intense darkness to light, recalling his sensory encounters in the wild - with blackbirds, whooper swans, red kites, hen harriers, frogs, dandelions, Irish hares and more - McAnulty reveals worlds we have neglected to see, in a stunning world of nature writing that is a future classic.
Winner of the Wainwright Prize in 2020, Dara McAnulty’s Diary of a Young Naturalist chronicles a year in the author’s life, following the seasons, his struggles and triumphs as an autistic teenager and finding security in nature. An outstanding autobiography.Suffolk Libraries
About the author
Dara McAnulty is an environmental campaigner and has worked with Chris Packham, the Royal Society Protection of Birds, National Trust and the Wildlife Trusts. He is an ambassador for the RSPCA and the Jane Goodall Institute.
Diary of a Young Naturalist was a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction and won the Wainwright Prize for UK Nature Writing 2020 – making Dara the youngest ever winner of a major literary prize.
Delve into a Wild Read and join us for our virtual book club!
Wild Reads is a partnership project between Suffolk Libraries and Suffolk Wildlife Trust to promote our connection between the natural world and the written word.
Wild Reads aims to give everyone the opportunity to enjoy the very best nature writing. The aim is to help inspire and ignite a love of nature in readers through the lenses of a wide variety of writers.
Visit Suffolk Libraries website here for the full Wild Reads booklist.
A window to wildlife - discover local landscapes with Suffolk Wildlife Trust
Are you feeling inspired by Diary of a Young Naturalist? Well, why not discover some of the best natural landscapes Suffolk has to offer? From ancient woods to windswept marshes, Suffolk Wildlife Trust's nature reserves are as varied as the animals and plants that live in them. These wild places are special, and in winter may well come with lashings of mud!
