Photo: Jillian Edelstein
Natasha Carthew
Agent: Juliet Pickering
Assistant: Finlay Charlesworth
Biography: Natasha Carthew is a Cornish working class writer and poet. She is the author of ten books, including three Young Adult novels with Bloomsbury, ALL RIVERS RUN FREE published by Quercus (2018), SONG FOR THE FORGOTTEN for the National Trust (2020) and BORN BETWEEN CROSSES, a sequence of prose-poetry (Hypatia Publications, 2021). She has also contributed to HAG: Forgotten Folk Tales (Virago Press, 2020) and WOMEN ON NATURE (Unbound, 2021).
Natasha has written extensively on nature and socio-economics, and frequently discusses how authentic rural working class writing is represented, for several publications and programmes including WRITERS & ARTISTS YEARBOOK, The Royal Society of Authors Journal, BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4, The Guardian, The Dark Mountain Project, The Bookseller, Book Brunch, The Big Issue and The Economist.
Natasha is the founder of the Nature Writing Prize for Working Class Writers, and Artistic Director of the Working Class Writers Festival, in partnership with Bristol Ideas.
Natasha’s memoir, UNDERCURRENT, was published by Hodder in April 2023 and was shortlisted for the non-fiction prize at the inaugural Nero Book Awards.
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).
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.