Ambassadors
Our Ambassadors supply advice and support to New Networks for Nature. Outstanding achievers in their respective fields, they produce work that fulfils many of our aims and ideas.
Michael McCarthy is the long-standing environment editor for the Independent newspaper and has won several prestigious awards for his commitment to and coverage of the natural world. He has three times been named Environment Reporter of the Year and in 2007 was awarded the RSPB’s medal for an outstanding contribution to conservation – the first time the medal has gone to a journalist. His book Say Goodbye to the Cuckoo (John Murray, 2009) is a beautifully written account of the appalling decline of what he calls ‘the spring bringers’ – the song birds that migrate between Africa and Europe each year.
Ruth Padel is an award-winning poet and novelist inspired by nature. Writing in The Telegraph, Andrew O’Hagan described her as ‘A poet and a scholar with a beautifully patient understanding, reminiscent of Ted Hughes, of how the natural world invests itself in our experience’. Born in an attic in Wimpole Street, Ruth went on to study classics in Oxford, Berlin and Paris, before becoming a full-time writer in 1984. She has also written a wide range of non-fiction books and essays on topics in the arts, sciences and popular culture. Her most recent book is The Mara Crossing (Chatto and Windus, 2012) on migration and immigration.
www.ruthpadel.com
Katrina Porteous is an acclaimed poet, historian and broadcaster. Born in Aberdeen, Katrina later graduated from Cambridge with a degree in history in 1982. Since 1987 she’s been a freelance writer and her poetry, which involves a detailed and loving celebration of the people, landscapes and wildlife of the Northumbrian coast, has won several awards. Her major collections, often done in collaboration with artists and musicians, include The Lost Music, The Wund an’ the Wetter, Turning the Tide and Longshore Drift.
www.katrinaporteous.co.uk
Image credits
Photograph of Michael McCarthy by Tim Birkhead; Ruth Padel by Gwen Burnyeat; Katrina Porteous by Grant Sonnex.