Yarrow Townsend is a writer, artist and workshop leader. Her first novel for young people, The Map of Leaves (Chicken House, 2022) was Sunday Times’ Children’s Book of the Week in 2022 and was shortlisted for the Branford Boase Award in 2023. Described by judges as ‘mesmerising’, the story centres on river pollution and the importance of weeds and wildflowers. Her second novel A Ship in the Dark (Chicken House, 2024) looks at the impact of light pollution on seabird migration. Her novels have been translated into Turkish, Czech, German, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese.

Yarrow loves teaching writing in outdoor places. She delivers workshops for schools and colleges across the country, as well as conservation organisations (Bird Aware Solent, CPRE) and festivals (such as the Isle of Wight Literary Festival, Bridport Literary Festival and the British Science Festival). From 2024-25, Yarrow was the New Forest National Park’s first ever Writer in Residence, based at the Countryside Education Trust in Beaulieu, a project supported by ArtfulScribe.