Rob Cowen is an award-winning writer and author, hailed as one of the UK’s most original voices on nature, place and people. His first book, Skimming Stones, won the Roger Deakin Award from the Society of Authors. His second book, Common Ground (PRH; 2015) was shortlisted for the Portico, Richard Jefferies Society and Wainwright Prizes and voted one of the nation’s favourite nature books of all time in a BBC poll. His follow-up, The Heeding (E&T; 2021), was the best-selling debut book of poetry in 2021. Rob has contributed to the New York Times, the Guardian and the Independent and written radio programmes for the BBC. He lives in North Yorkshire.

"It takes a special kind of writer to make magic from the everyday. Rob Cowen has created something extraordinary; a journey into the Northern dreamtime in starkly beautiful prose. Common Ground gives us a new perspective on familiar places; makes us think again about what we think we know of our world; helps us understand the links that bind us to our landscape, and, like Blake, makes us see Heaven in a wild flower." -- Joanne Harris "Sensitive, thoughtful and poetic. Rob Cowen rakes over a scrap of land with forensic care, leading us into a whole new way of looking at the world." -- Michael Palin "Marvellously moving, this thrilling book is as big as any I know. A deep-mined and lovingly made account of survival, endurance and natural resilience in our old and broken world ... Heart-stoppingly beautiful." -- Tim Dee author of The Running Sky and Four Fields "Heartfelt, deep, beautiful and moving." -- Tristan Gooley, The Natural Navigator "Formally brave, beautifully written; an intimate account of one of life's great turning points, and a luminous, painstaking exploration of place." -- Melissa Harrison author of At Hawthorn Time and Clay

Rob Cowen is an award-winning writer and author, hailed as one of the UK’s most original voices on nature, place and people. His first book, Skimming Stones, won the Roger Deakin Award from the Society of Authors. His second book, Common Ground (PRH; 2015) was shortlisted for the Portico, Richard Jefferies Society and Wainwright Prizes and voted one of the nation’s favourite nature books of all time in a BBC poll. His follow-up, The Heeding (E&T; 2021), was the best-selling debut book of poetry in 2021. Rob has contributed to the New York Times, the Guardian and the Independent and written radio programmes for the BBC. He lives in North Yorkshire.

"It takes a special kind of writer to make magic from the everyday. Rob Cowen has created something extraordinary; a journey into the Northern dreamtime in starkly beautiful prose. Common Ground gives us a new perspective on familiar places; makes us think again about what we think we know of our world; helps us understand the links that bind us to our landscape, and, like Blake, makes us see Heaven in a wild flower." -- Joanne Harris "Sensitive, thoughtful and poetic. Rob Cowen rakes over a scrap of land with forensic care, leading us into a whole new way of looking at the world." -- Michael Palin "Marvellously moving, this thrilling book is as big as any I know. A deep-mined and lovingly made account of survival, endurance and natural resilience in our old and broken world ... Heart-stoppingly beautiful." -- Tim Dee author of The Running Sky and Four Fields "Heartfelt, deep, beautiful and moving." -- Tristan Gooley, The Natural Navigator "Formally brave, beautifully written; an intimate account of one of life's great turning points, and a luminous, painstaking exploration of place." -- Melissa Harrison author of At Hawthorn Time and Clay