Nicola Davies’ environmental books lay it all on the page

Nicola Davies enjoys solitude. “Almost all my positive memories are solitary…And almost always in nature.” In one of her clearest memories, Nicola is six and sits at the edge of a clifftop barley field while on holiday with her parents in a coastal village in Wales. “I remember sitting near the field and watching the winds moving the barley and the sun going down over the sea and having a visceral sense of my own mortality. But also somehow very connected with that—a sense of the earth going round and me being on it and me being a part of it whether I was alive or dead.”

Of course, Nicola did not have the vocabulary at the time to articulate her new-found awareness, but as a children’s author she’s not surprised when kids share their profound thoughts. “I often try to remember how emotionally complex and layered they already are. They really don’t know very much about the world. They haven’t got much experience. They are looking and thinking and feeling and that has to be acknowledged and respected.”

I met Nicola in Washington, D.C. in October 2015, for the Green Earth Book Award ceremony where her book, The Promise, was honored. We sat down for a Skype chat last month while she was at home in Wales.  READ MORE…