conservation – Literature & Landscape

We are delighted to announce that producer, author and director Alastair Fothergill will be speaking and showing footage of his work at our Literature & Landscape festival in October 2026.

David Attenborough on location filming Life in the Freezer (1993) – one of many natural history documentary series produced by Alastair Fothergill.

Life on Earth (1979) Attenborough’s first global broadcasting phenomenon, reached 15 million viewers in the UK and 500 million across the world. Billions have since watched his work over more than seven decades

Alastair credits Life on Earth with inspiring him to channel his love of nature through the medium of television, thanks – as he wrote in The Telegraph this week – to ‘the extraordinary power of David as a communicator… the narrative, the storytelling, was just amazing’. He describes how David will take his pen to a script that has been refined over many months and within minutes – sometimes on location behind a tree – transform the words into something that people will instantly connect with. ‘What he does, it’s not just fiddling, it’s crafting, and it’s bloody good.’

Awe-inspiring footage, shot over months of patience and endurance in the harshest of environments is engaging enough, but Alastair suggests it is the stories that have the power to change minds and win over Attenborough’s fans into caring deeply about the beauty, fascination and fragility of the natural world.

Working with dedicated and talented visionaries like David Attenborough, Alastair has been able over his own 40-year career to draw audiences into a deep personal connection with wildlife and wildlife habitats, one that makes us want to do what we can to remedy the many existential threats that are driving the biodiversity crisis year on year.

There is something particularly democratic about being able to experience rare moments in the natural world from the comfort of our sofas. Nature engagement and being outdoors cheer us and bring a wonderfully calming sense of perspective. Yet this way – via our screens – we can enjoy all of that without disturbing the creatures that need space and privacy to survive and thrive.

Alastair’s latest documentary: A Gorilla Story is told by David Attenborough and came out on Netflix in April. Please have a look at this 5* review in The Guardian.

Alastair is the author of 8 books including The Wild Isles – which accompanied the series of that name – co-written with Norfolk’s Patrick Barkham. Alastair was Head of the BBC’s Natural History Unit in Bristol for six years and went on to found Silverback Films. He was awarded the Royal Geographical Society’s Cherry Kearton Medal in 1996 and was made a Fellow of the Royal Television Society in 2016 for his work in natural history programming.

Executive Producer Alastair Fothergill (far left) with presenter David Attenborough and producer Vanessa Berlowicz at the making of the first BBC series of Frozen Planet in 2011.

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We’re delighted to be able to share this discussion in which the BBC’s Joe Crowley expertly questioned Jake Fiennes and Tony Juniper CBE about the biodiversity crisis, and what – if anything – can be done to help nature to recover. The UK population is growing; we need food, water and more housing, and all of those demand space and resources, while nature continues to be squeezed out.

Tony Juniper CBE is Chair of Natural England and has spent 40 years campaigning nationally and internationally to save endangered species, drive policy changes and change thinking on biodiversity, recycling, industrial pollution, rights of way and the climate crisis. He has held leading roles in WWF, Friends of the Earth, Birdlife International and the Wildlife Trusts and is also the author of 11 books (with another on the way).

Jake Fiennes’s 2022 book Land Healer brought together 30 years of experience in restorative land management. He is a pioneering and passionate Head of Conservation on the Holkham Estate, including Britain’s largest privately owned nature reserve. On the screen behind this discussion, a slideshow of Jake’s stunning photographs showed the flourishing results of years of hard work.

Norfolk arguably leads the country in both food production and conservation. It was the festival’s privilege to host this honest and urgent discussion about creative solutions to an existential issue.

NB if the red button won’t play this content on your device, please try instead clicking the ‘watch on YouTube’ link in the bottom left-hand corner of the image.