Yarrow Townsend is an author and educator based in Southampton, UK. She spent most of her childhood in the woods, pretending to be characters from books. She now writes adventures for children, poetry for adults and has collected some of her thoughts about writing, environment and literature here in this Substack.

Yarrow’s first book for children, The Map of Leaves, was shortlisted for the Branford Boase Award (2023) and for the East Sussex Children's Book Award (2023) and was a Sunday Times Children's Book of the Week in 2022. A Ship in the Dark (2024) was described by the Lancashire Evening Post as ‘a beautifully written, literary voyage into the mysteries of the natural world’.

As an educator, Yarrow runs writing workshops in outdoor places for children and adults. Her speciality is helping schools to develop literacy teaching outside of the classroom, and support SEND learners to access literacy and language in outdoor places (using stories, green spaces and sometimes even horses).

In 2024, Yarrow was appointed the New Forest National Park’s first ever Writer in Residence. Based at the Countryside Education Trust in Beaulieu she will be writing about ancient woodland and waterside landscapes - and running workshops throughout the year.

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