Nick Hunt
Non-fiction writer, Novelist
About
Nick Hunt is a travel writer and novelist. Much of his writing is inspired by long journeys on foot. His first book Walking the Woods and the Water (Nicholas Brealey, 2014) tells the story of his 2,500-mile walk from the Hook of Holland to Istanbul in the footsteps of Patrick Leigh Fermor. Where the Wild Winds Are (Nicholas Brealey, 2017) follows four of Europe’s winds to explore their effects on landscape, people and culture. His third travel book Outlandish (John Murray, 2021) is about journeys through Europe’s tundra, primeval forest, desert and grassland steppe.
The Parakeeting of London (Paradise Road, 2019) is a work of ‘gonzo ornithology’ about the myths surrounding feral parakeets in the UK. His short-fiction collection Loss Soup and Other Stories (Sumeru, 2022) deals with loss and extinction, while his debut novel Red Smoking Mirror (Swift Press, 2023) is an alternate history set in 16th-century Mexico. His nonfiction books have twice been finalists for the Edward Stanford Travel Book of the Year, and his novel was shortlisted for the Viking Award for Fiction with a Sense of Place.
He is an occasional contributor to BBC Radio 4’s From Our Own Correspondent, and a recipient of the Royal Geographical Society Journey of a Lifetime award. He also works as a freelance journalist, editor, mentor, tutor and storyteller. Since 2018 he has been a co-director of the Dark Mountain Project, publishing work engaged with themes of crisis, collapse and change.