Conversations with Nature

These eighteen meditations, amplified by Jerry Shearing's striking illustrations, offer luminous words enlivened with the weight of much listening. Through these "conversations," Peter Owen Jones offers a pathway to reconnect with nature. Just a few sentences a day provides sustenance for the soul.

Peter Owen Jones (born 1957) is an English Anglican priest, author, and award-winning television presenter. He spent his early years in the countryside before dropping out of school and working as a farm laborer in Austraila. He was ordained and became a parish priest in 1992. He has since written a handful of books, including Pathlands: 21 Tranquil Walks Among the Villages of Britain (Rider, 2015). In his BBC documentary How to Live a Simple Life (2009), Owen Jones tried to live a life without money, in the footsteps of Saint Francis of Assisi. That same year, he traveled the world in Around the World in 80 Faiths, visiting practitioners of various religions. His 2006 documentary, The Lost Gospels, discussed the Apocryphal Gospels omitted from the canon of the New Testament, considered how they might have altered Christian theology had they not been suppressed. He serves as a parish priest in Sussex, England.

Dr. Martin Shaw is an acclaimed teacher of myth and author of the award-winning Mythteller trilogy. He founded the Oral Tradition and Mythic Life courses at Stanford University, and is director of the Westcountry School of Myth in the UK. Shaw has introduced thousands of people to mythology and how it penetrates modern life. For twenty years, he has been a wilderness rites of passage guide, working with at-risk youth, those who are unwell, returning veterans, as well as numerous women and men seeking more depth in life. His translations of Gaelic poetry and folklore (with Tony Hoagland) have been published in magazines such as Orion and Mississippi Review. Shaw's recent books include Courting the Wild Twin (2020) and Smoke Hole: Looking to the Wild in the Time of the Spyglass (2021). His essay and conversation with Ai Weiwei on myth and migration was released by the Marciano Art Foundation.

Jerry Shearing and his partner Andrea Shearing create and teach at their studio in Sussex South Downs, UK. To capture nature and the environment, they also have a travel studio--a converted classic French fire engine referred to as the "Location Studio." Jerry trained at Eastbourne School of Art. His work is based on the dynamics of nature and the interaction of nature with the elements. His work expresses his reaction to sounds, smells, the colors, and textures, as well as the movements and interplay of sunlight, rain, and wind. He works largely with acrylic paint on canvas using only the primary colors mixed on the palette or on the canvas itself. His influences are the Impressionists, Expressionists and Abstract Expressionists.

Imogen Lycett Green is a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the University of Southampton. She helps students with academic writing and offers one-to-one tutorials for help with writing problems. She was shortlisted for the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award for her first book, Grandmother's Footsteps. Imogen has worked as an author and journalist for nearly thirty years, writing mostly about books and writers. She has written children's fiction, columns for the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mail and The Spectator, and has contributed to The Oldie, the Independent, UK Vogue and the Evening Standard. Imogen has a BA in Ancient History & Archaeology from Birmingham University and an MA from Sussex University in Life History Research. Imogen runs the Betjeman Prize, a national children's poetry competition, and also works in medical humanities, training GPs and running narrative workshops at Brighton Health & Wellbeing Centre.