GAIL SIMMONS is a ‘walking writer’ and the author of The Country of Larks, which was shortlisted for the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards 2020. She has an MA in Medieval History and a PhD in Creative Writing and teaches at Bath Spa University on their MA in Nature and Travel Writing. She is a contributor to the Telegraph, Guardian, Sunday Times, Independent, Wanderlust and TIME magazine, and has appeared on the BBC’s ‘From Our Own Correspondent’ and ‘Woman’s Hour’.