Hope Bourne – A Life Outside on Exmoor

Friday 13 November, 5 – 7pm, Dulverton Town Hall

Sara Hudston and Charles Foster

The Dulverton Exmoor Literary Festival is extremely proud to be hosting the official launch of A Life Outside: Hope Bourne on Exmoor, an important new biography, written by Sara Hudston and published by The Exmoor Society that celebrates one of Exmoor’s most original and compelling voices. This special event marks the return of Hope Bourne (1918 – 2010) to the forefront of British nature writing, introducing a new generation of readers to a woman whose life and work were decades ahead of their time.

Writer, artist and naturalist, Hope Bourne chose to live alone in a caravan on Exmoor without electricity, growing vegetables, shooting for the pot and living with extraordinary independence. Author Sara Hudston wrote: “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’s her writing that truly sets her apart. Her columns for the local paper are among the best of her work, and it’s really exciting to bring them to light again.”

Sara is joined at the Festival by writer, philosopher and academic Charles Foster, whose foreword celebrates the biography as “a masterpiece of detective work”. This unique event celebrates not only the launch of an important new book, but the enduring legacy of one of Exmoor’s most extraordinary characters.

Following the talk, the Town Hall bar will open for drinks, with the opportunity to enjoy some items from the Hope Bourne exhibition that has been touring in advance of the book’s publication and will be on display in the Parish Rooms, Dulverton from 1^st to 15^th November 2026.

Tickets £12 adults £6 children (under 17).