Deborah Tomkins Writer - Blog

Public Lecture coming up - free to attend

Thu, 15 Oct 2026 17:41:00 +0000

My next public outing will be on 7th November in Harpenden as an invited guest of the United Nations Association, where I will be giving a public lecture on Story and Climate Writing, titled What has Story ever done for us? It will be a deep dive into why Story is important to human beings - it is what we do best, in many ways - both in fiction and in non-fiction, plus a look at some climate writing.

The lecture is 45 minutes long, followed by discussion. I am finding writing it quite a challenge - there is so much to say, and maybe not enough time to say it! But I have only myself to blame, since it was me who came up with the idea and the title in early January this year.

But there's nothing like a challenge of this nature to help work out what we really think about a subject, so it's all good!

The lecture is free to attend, and will also be live-streamed, and I think will be available on YouTube afterwards as most of their public lectures are.

Many thanks to UNA Harpenden for their invitation last December. I am looking forward to it.

Public lecture on What has story ever done for us? Earth’s climate crisis from the perspective of a prize-winning novelist by Deborah Tomkins on Saturday 7 November 2026 at 10:15 for 10:30am at Salvation Army, Leyton Green, Harpenden AL5 2TG. Click on the link above for more information and to register.

Large beached jellyfish, Devon, UK. June 2026

Bristol Climate Writers

Mon, 05 Oct 2026 10:50:00 +0000

Back at the very end of 2016 I went around a few cafes in Bristol, pinning up small slips of paper on their community boards, with contact details for a new group I wanted to form. I was really keen to meet other local writers working on climate, nature and environment, in all genres. Thus, in January 2017, Bristol Climate Writers was born.

We are a loose network of writers working in all genres, from journalism to science writing, short stories to novels, poetry, travel writing, spirituality and memoir. For several years we managed monthly meetings, with usually 6-8 people attending. We also ran a few public events. The pandemic made life more difficult, although we did have a few online meetings, and we have never quite got back to those regular meet-ups since then. People are busy (and I have to confess that I am not a natural administrator!).

However, there are new opportunities happening in the next few weeks. In all cases please contact the organisers, not me!

Nick Hunt starts a new weekly course on writing science fiction, fantasy and dystopia on Wednesday 7th October, which can absolutely include climate, nature and environment. He says: "The overall intention of the course is to develop a piece of writing - either a work in progress or something entirely new - with the aim of celebrating what you've achieved with a short reading in the final week. The cost is £160 (£20 per session). If you're interested, do let me know!"
Helen Moore begins a new in-person monthly peer-led Bristol Climate Writers group for poets and writers whose work explores nature connection, climate and intersecting issues, on Monday 19th October. There will be a small charge of £4 upwards (on sliding scale of affordability) per session. For more information, or to sign up, please contact markosmalley@gmail.com.
Mark Goldthorpe curates the website ClimateCultures, which is open to all writers and artists working in the area of climate and nature. He is always pleased to hear from people who may like to join this international network, and contribute content.
And on Sunday November 15th I am speaking at the Clifton LitFest in Bristol, along with two fascinating speakers, Doina Cornell and Tom Appleby.
Have a look at the Bristol Climate Writers page to find out a little more about us.

We are always open to new members. If you live in Bristol, Bath, North Somerset or South Gloucestershire, we would love to hear from you!

Community food growing in former car park, Clifton, Bristol.

Leiston Book Festival

Mon, 21 Sep 2026 15:11:00 +0000

I had a most enjoyable day on Saturday 19th September at the community cinema in Leiston, a small rural town in East Suffolk, where I attended the third Leiston Book Festival. The cinema seats around 200 people and it was a busy day, listening to some fascinating talks from excellent authors. You can peruse the programme here.

If you write about land, landscape, nature, climate and environment, Robert Ashton and his team would be pleased to hear from you for next year, in a few weeks' time. I was the first novelist to attend, speaking about my novel The Wilder Path - but I may not be the last!

Here you can see me standing with Bishop Graham Usher in the foyer of the cinema at the end of the day - we are each holding one of our books. It was a joy to meet him and speak alongside him in our joint event, although in the photo below we are both looking rather more serious. Graham has written a beautiful book on the spirituality of walking, The Way Under Our Feet; and my novel begins with a walk on the wild north Cornish coast. As Christians we were invited to talk a little about our books, about the church's approach to environmental issues, and also to give some of our own personal reflections on the importance of walking, on nature and the science of climate change, and what we believe God might be saying to us through Scripture and through the stresses on the natural world.

Other events that day included topics of the history and land use, gulls, enjoying being out in all weathers, some amazing Suffolk walks in the footsteps of Suffolk writers, and Louis de Berniere's new memoir.

It was a wonderful day, and one I thoroughly recommend - superbly organised with a wonderful community feel and a large audience! It's also a beautiful part of the world. Look out for next year's Festival, especially if you are in Suffolk or East Anglia.

Photos: © Callum Hoffman, Hoff Media

Podcast! Mad about Books

Fri, 28 Aug 2026 10:34:00 +0000

I have been on the radio!

I was interviewed by Robert Ashton, founder of the Leiston Book Festival, for "Mad About Books", a weekly programme on Alde and Blyth Community Radio, and it was broadcast on Wednesday night. We recorded this piece several weeks ago, and I had forgotten how much ground we covered, talking not only about my novel The Wilder Path, but also global warming, climate activism, where inspiration comes from, and my taste in music.

The interview comes in two parts - the beginning of the programme, and then from about 32 minutes until the end.

Have a listen if you want to know more about this novel, as well as my writing process and where characters come from.

Many thanks to Robert for his support. I am looking forward to the Festival very much, where I will be in conversation with Bishop Graham Usher, who is the lead Bishop for the environment in the Church of England.

There are still some tickets left for the festival, and I would recommend that you book early if you would like to come. Other speakers include Jackie Collins Harvey, Matt Gaw, Tim Dee, and Louis de Bernières.

New events from Bristol Climate Writers - plus the weather

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 12:41:00 +0000

What a long silence since my last post. Let's look at the weather first. I am not able to function properly* in such heat... 38C last week - that's just over 100F, which in a country with high humidity is unbearable.

The UK is humid all year round. It is well known that 30C, say, in England, is very different from 30C in a dry country. The humidity means that we cannot sweat effectively, as sweat doesn't evaporate off our skin, and our bodies therefore cannot physically cool down. 30C in the UK - with humidity at 86%, which happened recently - feels unbearable. We call this "muggy" weather. We sweat a lot at even 22C, and can't get cool.

The opposite is also true. The humidity in the winter - which we call "damp" - seeps into our bones, at least that's what it feels like, as our homes and our clothing get progressively damper and thus feel chillier over the autumn/winter/spring months. This is why airing our clothes and bed sheets is so important, getting things completely dry. Many homes have heated "airing cupboards" for this purpose.

Sometimes people ask why we don't have the infrastructure (such as air conditioning) to deal with extremes of weather. The UK lies in a temperate zone, and therefore such infrastructure has not hitherto been necessary. An additional problem is that air conditioning only pushes the problem outside, making it even hotter. Birds, insects, animals and plants can't adapt or use air conditioning - they are likely to be dying in these heatwaves.

As This year's El Niño increases in intensity, the UK, like the rest of the world, will be grappling with ever increasing climate chaos, warned of for several decades and not acted on much by governments anywhere, as far as I can see. What is increasingly clear is that fossil fuels are not the answer. We need to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, use alternative sources of energy, and heat-proof our homes (insulation and solar-reflective window films would be a good place to start).

*no-one is able to function effectively in these temperatures and humidity. I think of India, which has experienced temperatures of nearly 50C.

Meanwhile, Bristol Climate Writers keep going. Eco Poet Helen Moore launched a brilliant new collection of poetry, The Last Lighthouse in Rising Seas, in June; in early July Peter Reason hosted a wonderful event in Bath, exploring river song and river story; also in July I very much enjoyed my visit to Penzance where I taught a class on climate writing; and Nick Hunt will be running a course on speculative fiction in Bristol this coming autumn. If you want to keep abreast of events, please sign up on the BCW page on this website!

Countdown to... Penzance!

Sat, 06 Jun 2026 12:37:00 +0000

I am so looking forward to the Penzance Literary Festival this year. Not only is it in one of the most beautiful and fascinating parts of the world (West Cornwall), with a line-up of brilliant writers, I am taking part on Wednesday 8th July with my two-hour workshop, Weathering the Storms. It is part of the Festival's series on "Inspired Starting Points For Your Novel".

My workshop is for anyone doing any kind of writing at all: poetry, fiction (both short stories and novels), and non-fiction. The basic premise is that we are bombarded with depressing climate and nature news every single day in the media (and the pendulum has swung, as it always does, in precisely the opposite direction from where it was only 10-15 years ago, when it was difficult to find much news about the environment) - but there is a LOT of good news around, despite a gas-guzzling war and some serious denial across the Atlantic.

How can we harness the hope, while balancing the realism we all need when facing these twin crises? And what does 'hope' mean, in this context?

I hope this has whetted your appetite!

My blurb says: Most climate fiction focuses on disasters, but other ways of approaching the climate crisis include hope, generosity and ingenuity, often deployed in unexpected ways. Novelist and founder of the Bristol Climate Writers network, Deborah Tomkins, will explore different genres and techniques for writing about climate change, with reference to her own prize-winning books, Aerth and The Wilder Path (shortlisted for The Encore Award 2026).

If you find this interesting and you are in the area, please come along. Places are limited to 12 people, and it costs £20. Open to all writers!

Various bits of news...

Tue, 26 May 2026 16:28:00 +0000

May 13th was incredibly cold, unseasonably so at 12C. I was greeted by a massive thunderstorm and very heavy hail at Paddington station, on my way to the Institute of Contemporary Arts for the Encore Award. I was dressed in a summer frock, but I wore many layers to keep warm. Today the temperature is about 34C, a huge difference (and I read that in India it is approaching 50C right now, which is life-threatening, not just for humans but for animals, bird and insects). More global weirding.

The authors and judges met for tea ahead of the event, and we had lovely writerly chats. Then we moved into the main rooms of the ICA, a handsome Georgian building with beautiful reception rooms upstairs, with high ceilings, big windows and polished floors. There were many guests, including publishers, stunning flower arrangements, sparkling wine and canapés, live music - and us! Claire Adam won the Award for her book Love Forms, but I am still so happy that my climate novel The Wilder Path was on the shortlist of only 4 books.

Huge thanks to The Society of Authors, and to our panel of judges chaired by Malika Booker. Here's a picture (photo by Jonathan Hawkins).

Meanwhile this unseasonably hot weather has taken both me and my garden by surprise. Two weeks ago my small veg plants had to be brought inside not only at night, but often in the daytime, especially tomatoes which hate the cold. Today the heat drives me inside and it's a challenge to keep them watered. It's the hottest May week ever.

You will see from the photo below that I plant my tomatoes in large pots directly into the earth. This is to protect them from weather shocks - heat, cold, flood and drought. It works. The first year I did this, I harvested nearly 40kg of tomatoes from 7 plants. I recommend this technique!

The garden is always a work in progress this time of year. You can see climbing French beans in the plastic tub, almost ready to be planted. There are cucumbers too, and courgettes, parsley and mint (in a pot), lettuce, pak choi and other herbs. Behind are raspberries which are already beginning to fruit (several weeks early, despite the cold spring). Wild strawberries bring me and the birds pleasure. And the large grey-green plant is a poppy which I didn't have the heart to dig up. It's not in the way right now.

There is very little better than home-grown produce. And it takes a tiny bit of pressure off our increasingly vulnerable food supply systems.

Bristol Climate Writers event - May 22nd 2026

Fri, 08 May 2026 11:44:00 +0000

Our very own award-winning ecopoet Helen Moore is launching her new collection The Last Lighthouse in Rising Seas (Palewell Press) at respected independent bookshop Bookhaus on Friday 22nd May, where she will be reading alongside poet Ambrose Musiyiwa. Tickets cost £7 and include a glass of wine or a soft drink.

Dr Helen Moore is a pioneering British ecopoet, socially engaged artist, and writer. She has previously published several acclaimed collections of poetry, including river/run, available from Cape Farewell.

If you are in the Bristol area, we would love to see you!

Tickets are available here.

(For members of Bristol Climate Writers, only, there will be a further meeting after this event, at a different venue. Please contact me for more details.)

The Encore Award - shortlisting

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 16:37:00 +0000

I am so excited to share that my novel The Wilder Path has been shortlisted for The Encore Award, which is for a novelist's second novel. The Award was set up by the Royal Society of Literature in 1990, and is now being administered by the Society of Authors.

This year's judges were Malika Booker, Rachel Aroesti, and Anita Sethi, who selected a "treasure trove" of four novels for the shortlist. It's absolutely amazing that my novel now keeps company with the brilliant books shortlisted in the past, as well as these wonderful contemporary novels.

The judges say, about The Wilder Path:

This immensely atmospheric novel depicts both extreme weather events and the characters' stormy emotions as it tells a potent story of grief for the loss of human life and the destruction of the natural world - and how such loss can be channelled into hope and action to strive for a better world.

Huge congratulations to my three fellow shortlisted authors, Claire Adam, Caleb Klaces, and Nydia Hetherington, and I look forward very much to reading their novels.

AI - Artificial Intelligence - and creativity

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 16:59:00 +0000

Artificial Intelligence is a HUGE topic, one that we are going to be grappling with for a long time. I am still gathering my thoughts on this, but the TL;DR (too long, don't read) version is that all the greatest works on Earth have been created purely from human imagination and the creative impulse (which we ALL possess, I believe, however that creativity is expressed). We don't need machines to help us.

The second thing to say is that ALL work created by Artificial General Intelligence has been stolen from the works of human beings: writing, music, art, photography. AGI is trained on human work, the vast majority of which has been used without permission - uploaded, saved and then deleted within seconds. Artists deserve copyright fees. There have been some lawsuits (ongoing).

You will find that AGI-created work (can we say "created"? - I'm not sure - it is simply "produced", like in a factory) all begins to sound and look the same. AGI has no original creative impulse of its own, however clever and original it may sound at first.

There are other forms of Artificial Intelligence - some are useful, for example in science experiments when a computer compiles results, thus saving researchers a great deal of time. Other uses are dubious - certain models of AI are factually incorrect up to 40% of the time. We shouldn't rely on these for fact-checking, homework etc. Other uses are plain unethical - such as Palantir now using its AI software to choose targets to bomb in Iran. The AI is making decisions that only humans should make.

I could go on! There is a lot more to say. Perhaps another time. I have never used AI of any kind, and don't intend to. Readers can be assured that everything I write and publish, whether words or images, is all my own work.

Meanwhile, on a lighter note, if you would like to read The Wilder Path as an eBook, you can find it on Kobo.