Photo: Jillian Edelstein
Natasha Carthew
Agent: Juliet Pickering
Assistant: Finlay Charlesworth
Biography: Natasha Carthew is a Cornish writer and has published fiction and memoir with Bloomsbury, Quercus, Hodder and the National Trust. Her Nero Award shortlisted memoir, UNDERCURRENT: A Cornish Memoir of Poverty, Nature and Resilience, was published by Hodder in 2023. ROUGH EDGES: Where Land Meets Water, the Untold Stories of Coastline Communities published with Sceptre in June 2026.
Natasha is known for writing on socioeconomic issues, rural poverty and working-class representation for several publications, podcasts and programmes including ITV, BBC Radio, The Bookseller, the Guardian, The Quietus, Observer, Mslexia, and The Big Issue.
Natasha is Founder/Director of COMMON GROUND Festival and Nature Writing Prize. She has collaborated with many organisations including The Booker Prize, The Women's Prize, FutureBook and the London Book Fair. Natasha guest-edited the first ever working-class edition of The Bookseller and is a recipient of their Rising Star Award.
Praise for Natasha Carthew:
‘Carthew’s prose has a startling ferocity.’ — The Telegraph
‘Carthew delivers a gripping story in intense, powerful prose.’ — International Business Times
Visit Natasha’s website.
Follow Natasha on X (previously Twitter).
ROUGH EDGES
Memoir, 288 pages
Sceptre, June 2026
BEYOND THE PICTURE POSTCARDS, BRITAIN'S COASTAL COMMUNITIES ARE SUFFERING.
Crowds flood the beaches during summer heatwaves but they quickly vanish again, leaving behind drifts of rubbish and unstable seasonal jobs. Seaside property is in high demand but affordable only for landlords and gentrifiers. The cost-of-living crisis and the ongoing pains of austerity trap those at the vulnerable edges of our nation in poverty.
Having grown up in rural Cornwall, Natasha Carthew leaves the county in search of a new home. Travelling the country and exploring the villages, towns and cities of our coast, she meets the people fighting to keep these places alive. With fierce compassion, she shares their voices and their stories.
ROUGH EDGES is a rallying cry for the beauty and importance of our coast and its people.
UNDERCURRENT
Memoir, 288 pages
Hodder, April 2023
There's a Cornish saying that nothing is left behind in an autumnal tide, the powerful tug between the sun and the equator makes the water surface stronger, and it pulls and builds until we are left with what is known as great tides—but as I stand here on my childhood beach someplace in my 40s, all I can see is the stretch of grey rocks and sand where the ebb has come and gone.
Natasha Carthew grew up in rural poverty in Cornwall, battling limited opportunities, precarious resources, escalating property prices, isolation and a community marked by the ravages of inequality. Her world existed alongside the postcard picture Cornwall, where wealth and privilege converged on sandy beaches and expensive second homes.
In the rockpools and hedgerows of the natural world, Natasha found solace in the beauty of the landscape, and in the mobile library she found her means of escape. In her first non-fiction audiobook she returns to the cliff-paths of her childhood, determined to make sense of an upbringing shaped by political neglect and a life defined by the beauty of nature.