This Natural Life

In this special edition of This Natural Life, His Majesty The King tells Martha Kearney about his lifelong passion for nature and the environment. As they walk together through the walled garden at Dumfries House in Ayrshire, the King reflects on how his love of the natural world began in childhood and discusses topics ranging from school farms and marine conservation to the art of topiary and the joy of secateurs. Martha also talks to young people and tutors on educational schemes based at the two thousand acre estate, which is owned by the King’s Foundation.Photo courtesy of the King's FoundationProducer: Emma Campbell

Dara McAnulty, a 21-year-old Northern Irish naturalist currently studying at Cambridge, is home for the winter break. He takes Martha Kearney to one of his favourite places nearby - the Murlough National Nature Reserve in the Mourne Mountains. This special landscape of ancient forest, sand dunes, and a colony of seals lies on the edge of Dundrum Bay, framed by the Mourne Mountains.Dara shares his deep connection to this place and explains why he loves visiting in all weathers. He reflects on his journey into the natural world, beginning with his early years in Belfast and growing up as an autistic child, finding solace, peace, and joy in the outdoors - and then writing about his experiences.His debut book, Diary of a Young Naturalist, won the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing in 2020, among other accolades, and he is the youngest ever winner of the RSPB Medal. Dara has also written three children’s books: Wild Child: A Journey Through Nature, A Wild Child’s Book of Birds, and A Wild Child's Guide to Nature at Night.Producer: Eliza Lomas

Martha Kearney meets Jane Anderson, one of the UK's leading physicians in HIV medicine, to learn about the living library of plants at Chelsea Physic Garden. Since childhood, Jane has always been a huge lover of plants and their many remarkable uses - for food, for medicine, for health and wellbeing. As they walk around the medicinal plant beds, she speaks about human health and planetary health, and how they are both completely interconnected. Producer: Becky Ripley

Emma Pinchbeck is the Chief Executive Officer of the Climate Change Committee - the independent body which advises the government on emissions targets and the impacts of climate change. She grew up in the Cotswolds, where Martha Kearney meets her to hear about her love of the Gloucestershire countryside. Emma talks about her childhood in the Stroud valleys, where her family roots go back twelve generations and where she is now bringing up her own children. She explains how deeply-rooted her connection to the natural world is - influencing everything from her choice of college as a teenager to her decision to give up a job in finance and work instead in the environmental sector.Producer: Emma Campbell

The Essex Serpent author Sarah Perry takes Martha Kearney to see the great rook and jackdaw roost at Buckenham Carrs in Norfolk. At dusk thousands of birds descend to settle in the trees for the night, a sight that Sarah finds both magical and comforting. She explains the role that nature plays in her novels, as active as any other character. Sarah Perry is the author of After Me Comes the Flood, The Essex Serpent, Melmoth, Enlightenment and Death of an Ordinary Man. Producer: Beth O'Dea