Out & About Autumn 2021

animals with great big antlers. We stood completely still as they stampeded around us. It was incredible to experience, but also terrifying at the same time. I remember going home and trying to put into words how exciting and visceral it was. I could smell their breath!” A big influence on Nicola’s writing has been Thomas Hardy who has himself walked up Gallows Down. “I’ve read and loved his books and to give that a modern voice would be a wonderful aim to have. I think he shows the rural countryside in a way that is warts and all, yes it’s beautiful, but also there is poverty and difficulty.” Her book took eight years to complete as Nicola was always writing in ‘the gaps of life’, balancing her work as a writer with raising her children and other jobs. As well as writing for many different magazines, Nicola is the librarian at the John O’Gaunt school in Hungerford, a job which she

thoroughly enjoys. “The library is a fantastic place. It’s not just about books, but about ideas and digital information literacy, and a real flow of that goes on between the students. It’s almost like anything can happen in there.” Access to books and to nature

per cent of countryside in England and three per cent of rivers and river banks, and fewer than one in ten children regularly play in natural spaces, which is shocking. We can’t say to people we need to save our planet if we don’t give people access to the countryside.” Every day it is different. You can go up there and see nobody or see lots of people. The view can stretch for miles or you can be in this misty world where everything is below you and I love that Notably, when Nicola first took the book to publishers five years ago, she was told that no one really knew what environmental protest was. Since then, the sentiment has shifted and On Gallows Down

has become more poignant and relevant than ever before. Nicola is now busy writing articles for various countryside magazines, but hopes to write some more poetry along with a novel based around the history of the area. She is also confident that there will be a sequel to On Gallows Down . For budding writers, Nicola has some great advice: “Read as widely as you can, about anything and everything, and write what you love as if nobody is ever going to read it but you.” On Gallows Down is out on October 7 and available to buy in all book shops and on Amazon. It will also be available as an audio book. There will be a book launch at Hungerford Bookshop on October 9, which will include a signing, a reading and possibly an interview with Nicola. Tickets available from www. hungerfordbookshop.co.uk/ our-events

are causes very close to Nicola’s heart. “The wildlife crisis and the climate crisis go hand in hand with the issue of equality of access to nature. Currently we only have access to eight

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O&A AUTUMN 2021