George McGavin

More from This Natural Life All episodes →

1. 

   31 Jul 2025 · 24 min

   Angela Harding

   Martha Kearney travels to one of Britain's most isolated islands where the illustrator of books by the likes of Simon Armitage and Isabella Tree seeks her inspiration among the seabird colonies of Fair Isle. Angela Harding's lino-cut prints are an integral part of the recent boom in nature writing. Dynamic birds or mammals dominate the foreground while abstract interpretations of landscape set them in the context of wild shores and woodlands. Martha catches up with Angela as she searches for fresh inspiration on an artist's retreat on Fair Isle, a tiny island halfway between Orkney and…

2. 

   24 Jul 2025 · 24 min

   Lira Valencia

   Lira Valencia grew up in Croydon, the daughter of refugee parents from South America. In this programme she shows Martha Kearney around the Walthamstow Wetlands nature reserve in London, where she now works as a ranger. She tells Martha about the passion for wildlife which she has had ever since she was a small child. Growing up in a flat with no outdoor space, her favourite place was her grandmother's back garden in Streatham, where she discovered a fascination with snails which endures to this day. She talks about the barriers which she had to overcome in order to work in the conservation…

3. 

   17 Jul 2025 · 24 min

   Antony Gormley

   Antony Gormley's sculptures on Crosby beach are one his best-known works. In this programme, he shows Martha Kearney around the sculptures, and talks about his relationship with the natural world - especially the sea. The artwork in Merseyside consists of one hundred male figures cast in metal, and based on Antony's own body. As they are submerged with the rising and falling tides, their form evolves and changes, and they become rusty and encrusted with sealife. He describes one of them as "a participatory artwork made by me and a whole community of barnacles." As they stroll along the shore…

4. 

   10 Jul 2025 · 24 min

   Charlotte Church

   Charlotte Church rose to global fame at just eleven years old, renowned for the extraordinary purity of her singing voice. From growing up in what she describes as a working-class household in Cardiff, her career took her to the world’s grandest stages, performing for audiences which included the Pope and the U.S. President, and releasing best-selling albums. But that early fame also came with its own set of challenges, some of which, she explains, she is still "not quite grateful for, yet... but what teaching!" Today, Charlotte’s preferred concert hall is something entirely different: the…

5. 

   27 Mar 2025 · 24 min

   Raynor Winn

   Author of The Salt Path Raynor Winn takes Martha Kearney back to walk part of it: the south west coast path from Polruan in Cornwall, where her story ended and where the new film of her book is set. She talks about what nature means to her and how it effectively saved her life, and that of her husband, Moth. They set out to walk the 630 mile coast path when they lost their home and livelihood, and Moth was diagnosed with a terminal illness. They walked through it all and came out at the other end with renewed hope. Raynor Winn is a long-distance walker and writer whose first book, The Salt…

6. 

   13 Mar 2025 · 25 min

   Sacha Dench

   Conservationist and adventurer Sacha Dench tells Martha Kearney about her love of the natural world. She explains how she came to fly a paramotor along the whole length the 4000-mile route that migrating swans take from the Russian tundra to the UK – leading to her acquiring the nickname ‘The Human Swan’. As they watch birds together at the Fernworthy reservoir in Devon, Sacha talks about her childhood growing up in Australia, where she says the beach and the bush were her playgrounds. She tells Martha about the paramotor accident which left her seriously injured and from which the sights…

7. 

   6 Mar 2025 · 25 min

   James Dyson

   Sir James Dyson is one of the UK’s best known inventors and businessmen. His Dyson vacuum cleaners, hair dryers and air purifiers have sold in their millions, both in the UK and around the world. In 2013, Sir James turned his attention to farming. He now runs the biggest farming business in the country, and owns 36,000 acres on which he produces potatoes, peas and strawberries. In this programme, Martha travels to his farm near Bath to find out more about his love for the natural world. She learns of how his early years growing up in Norfolk helped inspire him not just in business, but also…

8. 

   4 Mar 2025 · 25 min

   Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

   Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is a chef, broadcaster, author and campaigner. His 'River Cottage' series ran for more than ten years on Channel 4 and he has written more than twenty food and cookery books. In this programme Martha Kearney catches up with Hugh at an event at the Abergavenny Food Festival. He tells her how his love affair with the countryside started at the age of five when his parents left London and moved to a farmhouse in Gloucestershire. He recalls a fascination with the natural world in his early years, remembering a childhood spent roaming the fields and collecting birds'…

9. 

   20 Feb 2025 · 25 min

   Adjoa Andoh

   Adjoa Andoh has played lead roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre, and is a familiar face to fans of Casualty and Doctor Who. She is probably best known as Lady Danbury in Bridgerton, the hit Netflix series. Her roots, though, are firmly in the countryside. She grew up in the village of Wickwar, just north of Bristol, where she and her brother were the only black children in the area. In this programme she tells Martha Kearney about her rural childhood and the lasting love of the natural world it instilled in her. She takes Martha on one of her favourite walks on…

10. 

    6 Feb 2025 · 25 min

    Professor Kathy Willis

    Martha Kearney meets Kathy Willis, Professor of Biodiversity at Oxford University, at Kathy's local stamping ground of Port Meadow, the protected common land in the heart of Oxford, to hear about how her love of the natural world has shaped her life. Growing up in London, Kathy has always been someone who spends a lot of time outdoors - whether in city parks, rural campsites or cycle trips abroad. Her mother instilled in her a deep respect for nature, teaching her the local names of plants from a young age. Kathy shares how she carried on this passion into her degree, and later PhD in…