A NEW book about Exmoor writer and artist Hope Bourne is to be published by the Exmoor Society in the autumn of this year.

‘A Life Outside: Hope Bourne on Exmoor’, by Sara Hudston, considers Hope’s life and legacy as one of the 20th century’s foremost nature writers.

It includes a selection of articles from the newspaper column Hope wrote for the West Somerset Free Press.

Never before republished, the pieces offer a trove of information about life on Exmoor in the early 1980s.

Ms Hudston said: “Hope’s work has been unjustly overlooked in recent years.

“Her ecological awareness, rejection of materialism, and close relationship with the natural world are of increasing relevance today.

“Her extraordinary life and jewel-like art often grab the most attention, but it is her writing that truly sets her apart.

“Her columns for the local paper are among the best of her work, and it is really exciting to bring them to light again.”

The book launch event on September 1 will take place in the society’s headquarters in Dulverton.

Sometimes known as ‘The Lady Of Exmoor’, Hope Bourne (1918–2010) spent nearly 60 years recording the landscape, wildlife, history, and changing rural traditions of the moor.

Fiercely creative and resolutely independent, she led a self-reliant life which gave her the freedom to write, draw, and paint.

Hope occupied a series of dilapidated cottages and caravans, living off the land as much as possible.

Writing provided her with a small and precarious income.

When she died in 2010, she bequeathed her entire estate to the Exmoor Society, of which she was a founder member.

The society is asking people to register their interest in the launch and it will update them later in the summer with information on how to be among the first to receive their copy of the book.