Dr Anita Sethi was born in Manchester, UK and is an award-winning writer and author of the acclaimed book I Belong Here: a Journey Along the Backbone of Britain which won a Books Are My Bag award, and was nominated for the Wainwright Prize for UK Nature Writing, the Great Outdoors Award and Royal Society of Literature’s Ondaatje Prize for writing evoking a strong sense of place. I Belong Here was praised as a “thing of beauty” by the Sunday Times, “a memoir of rare power” by the Guardian, and “an amazing odyssey: inspiring, powerful, encouraging and incredibly brave” by the Independent. It was selected as Stanfords Book of the Month, chosen as a Hottest Book of the Year by the Guardian and one of the best travel books by Wanderlust and the Telegraph. It was selected as the Best Travelogue of the Year by the Independent.
She has also been published in the anthologies Women on Nature edited by Katharine Norbury, The Wild Isles, Common People, the Seasons nature writing anthology, Seaside Special: Postcards from the Edge, We Mark Your Memory and Solstice Shorts among others.
She has written columns, features and reviews for newspapers and magazines including the Guardian and Observer, the i paper, Independent, Sunday Times, Telegraph, FT, Sydney Morning Herald, BBC Wildlife, Vogue, New Statesman, Granta, Harpers Bazaar, Times Literary Supplement, Stylist and BBC Travel among others. In broadcasting she has appeared on several channels including BBC Radios 2, 3, 4 and 5, the BBC World Service, ITV, Times Radio, Sky News, and ABC Australia. Programmes she has written for, presented for or appeared as a speaker/panellist on include The Essay, Front Row, The Today Programme, The Verb, The Midnight Debate and more.
She has appeared as a speaker at many venues including Cheltenham Literature Festival, Hay Festival, Southbank Centre, Edinburgh International Book Festival, Latitude Festival, Green Man Festival, Manchester Literature Festival, Ideas Festival, the British Library, Foyles, Daunts and other bookshops. She has participated in festivals around the world including in Trinidad & Tobago, Kerala, Nairobi, the Maldives and Melbourne, Australia, where she was an International Writer in Residence and Ambassador for Journalism at the Emerging Writers Festival and a writing fellow at the Wheeler Centre of Books, Writing and Ideas.
She has been a Judge of the Women’s Prize, British Book Awards, Costa Book Awards, Society of Authors Awards, Orwell Prize 2025 and is an Academician in the Folio Academy of the Rathbones Folio Prize and is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
She has interviewed leading writers, musicians, artists, politicians and public figures including Dolly Parton, Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood, Zadie Smith, Billy Bragg, Louis de Bernieres, Anne Michaels, Ian Rankin, Tracey Thorn, Michael Nyman, Antonio Carluccio and Caroline Lucas and has worked as a columnist, critic and feature writer. Her career highlights include going birdwatching with Margaret Atwood in the UK’s oldest nature reserve.
Contact: anita@anitasethi.com
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/anitasethi.bsky.social
Twitter: www.twitter.com/anitasethi
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/anitasethi
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Read: Observer interview with Anita Sethi by Lisa O’Kelly
Read: Bookseller interview with Anita Sethi by Caroline Sanderson
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Twitter: www.twitter.com/anitasethi
Instagram: @anitasethi
Winner, Books Are My Bag Award, Shortlisted – Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing, Nominated Great Outdoors Award, Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize, Portico Prize
Stanfords Travel, Book of the Month
Wanderlust recommended read and one of Best Travel Books
News: I Belong Here has been shortlisted and longlisted for the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing
News: Selected for the Guardian’s summer reading list – one of 50 hottest books.
News: Front cover of Observer New review in exclusive extract and interview.
News: Front Cover of The Bookseller in exclusive pre-publication interview.
News: Chosen as a Waterstones’ Best Book to Look Forward to
News: Selected for the Guardian’s Literary Highlights
News: Selected as Book of the Month in The Bookseller
Endorsements & Media Reviews
‘For anyone who has ever felt out of place, I Belong Here is a moving and comforting read. For everyone else, it is an education. Punchier and more political than most nature writing, this book is a thing of beauty.’
‘A heartfelt examination of identity and place…a memoir of rare power’
– Guardian
‘Nature’s beauty and wilderness provide a welcome escape from Sethi’s city life and kickstart a healing process as she becomes enveloped in the great outdoors, taking us on an emotional journey at the same time. It’s an amazing odyssey: inspiring, powerful, encouraging and incredibly brave.’
“Forever asked where she’s from originally, Sethi writes that she has always felt like an “outsider”. Instead, this passionate and reflective book stakes her claim to the English countryside and nature writing itself.”
‘A powerful and moving memoir’
– BBC Countryfile Mag
‘Restored and enlivened by the wonders of nature, Anita finds the courage to embrace her vulnerabilities and strengths and to claim her place in the world. Brave and life-affirming book.’
– S Magazine, Sunday Express
‘A profound read, weaving a sequence of immense concepts into a beautiful, unique and uplifting story about a walk. It’s also a superb study of the wildlife and wildness of the Pennines, and the words that northerners have found to name and describe them. Walkers may recognise many sights within Anita’s journey. But rarely has a writer brought so many strands of social and cultural history into the concept of walking.’
– Country Walking, Britain’s bestselling walking magazine
‘A masterful example of nature writing’
– The National
‘A beautiful, important, and inspiring exploration of our natural world and the author’s sense of belonging within her own country. Thought-provoking and inclusive, this is a wonderful blend of nature and an examination of language, community and friendship. Words dance in her hands, she shows how much language matters, looking at the meanings of words, particularly with regards to nature and emotions. She is so beautifully eloquent. Anita’s words encouraged me to look again, to not just see the face of our natural surroundings but to look in more depth at our natural history and how it exists and connects us. A LoveReading Star Book, I Belong Here is a truly beautiful and important read that I can wholeheartedly recommend’ – Liz Robinson, LoveReading
‘I Belong Here is a glorious book, presenting curiosity and exploration as a magnificently defiant response to the brute pettiness of prejudice. It opens the reader’s eyes to triumphant effect.’
– Tortoise
‘Exploring nature writing through such a political and powerful lens is groundbreaking and it was truly a joy to read, even if the content was emotionally challenging at times. Written in incredible prose… Sethi is a powerhouse writer and her work deserves a place on every bookshelf. We can’t wait to see what she creates next.’
– Nrth Lass
‘I Belong Here is an extraordinary piece of place writing, not least because of Sethi’s talent for describing the Northern landscape that she encounters. Sethi’s nature writing is relatable and accessible…It’s a searingly personal book, but its themes are universal with Sethi considering topics such as loneliness, grief, what it’s like to walk alone as a woman, history, politics, freedom, protest and identity. I felt her power and emotion searing through the page. Not only is I Belong Here an original piece of nature writing, it’s also a moving read. It’s powerful, vulnerable and, above all, truthful. The perfect recipe for a memoir’ – Northern Soul
“A brilliantly accomplished mix of powerful memoir and revelatory nature writing, Sethi’s account of finding solace in the Northern countryside following a traumatic racial attack is a defiant act of reclamation and an astonishing piece of testimony.”
– Waterstones blog, Best Books to Look Forward
“A magnificent and redemptive achievement. Manchester-born Sethi achieves a powerful blend of memoir, travelogue and natural history as she reflects on nature, place and belonging; and at its beating heart, her book is a stirring love letter to this troubled country of ours. I find it so moving that such a beautifully written, hate-defying book has been born from such a horrific experience. I Belong Here is a shining example of how books, at their best, can be an act of resistance and a communal force for good.”
Caroline Sanderson, The Bookseller Book of the Month/ Spring Highlights
Anita Sethi 