Written in Katya Balen’s heart-stoppingly beautiful style, this book is a feast for the senses, filled with the woodsmoke smell of crisp autumn mornings and the sound of wellies squelching in river mud. And, as October fights to find the space to be wild in the whirling chaos of the world beyond the woods, it is also a feast for the soul.
Katya Balen studied English at university. She is now a writer and is co-director of Mainspring Arts. Her debut novel, The Space We’re In, was highly commended for the Branford Boase Award 2020 and her second book, October, October, published to critical acclaim in the same year won the 2022 CILIP Carnegie Medal. When she’s not writing books or planning projects, she likes to scroll through dog-rescue websites, bake and attempt to keep all her house plants alive. She lives in London with her partner and their dogs Raffi and Mouse.
Angela Harding is a fine artist specialising in nature and wildlife screen-prints as well as lino and vinyl cuts. Her beautiful prints appear in a huge range of galleries and have also been featured in Gardens Illustrated, BBC Countryfile and Country Living.