There are writers who spend a lifetime waiting for their work to be acknowledged; not so for Dara McAnulty who, at 16 years old, has already been touted by his heroes – Robert Macfarlane most notably – as a nature writer to watch.
Which is to say nothing of his more tangible achievements: his debut book Diary of a Naturalist, a compelling hybrid of coming-of-age memoir and nature book from the perspective of a nature-obsessed young man with autism, won the Wainwright Prize for UK nature writing, was longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, and earned McAnulty a medal for conservation from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.
This week, to celebrate the eBook and audiobook release of Diary of a Naturalist, we got in touch with McAnulty to ask him about his literary heroes, the importance of writing in his life, and the “bliss” of being out in nature alone.