Authors

Yarrow Townsend spent most of her childhood in the woods pretending to be characters from books. After studying English and French Literature at the University of Oxford, she trained as an English teacher, before returning to the New Forest to work for the RSPB. Since then, she has lived on two different river boats, writing stories about adventures in wild places. Now she lives on dry land in Southampton, where she likes to swim in the River Itchen and teach others how to look after nature in the city. Her first novel, The Map of Leaves, was shortlisted for the Branford Boase Award (2023) and for the East Sussex Children’s Book Award (2023) and was a Sunday Times Children’s Book of the Week in 2022. She has an MA in Writing for Young People from Bath Spa University and runs writing workshops for children and adults in the great outdoors.