With their vibrant beauty and incredible wildlife, it's no surprise that chalk streams have inspired humanity for centuries. Authors like Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy, Richard Adams (Watership Down), and Charles Kingsley (The Water Babies) have been moved to capture their unique qualities in writing, and this rich literary tradition still continues today.

This year, we celebrated authors, poets, and storytellers through the Tales from the Riverbank Literature Festival - an exploration of how rivers inspire the written word. This formed part of our larger chalk stream scheme, Watercress and Winterbournes, and saw us hold events in Andover, Whitchurch, Overton, and Alresford throughout the month of June.

We were honoured to welcome four brilliant guest speakers for the festival - all prominent authors with their own unique specialisms. Their talks were inspiring, surprising, funny, and poignant; our heartfelt thanks to them for sharing their wisdom with us. Our speakers were:

• Tom Moorhouse - an author, research ecologist, and conservation scientist. Tom spoke about his research into Britain's endangered water voles, the future of our freshwater wildlife, and staying positive against steep odds.
   
• Matt Gaw - an author, journalist, and creative writing teacher. Matt spoke about exploring England's rivers through wild swimming and canoeing, including amazing wildlife sightings and powerful moments of self-discovery.
   
• Lisa Schneidau - an author, environmentalist, and performance storyteller. Lisa performed her favourite river folk tales, bringing alive stories of myth, magic, and monsters, and explored the role of storytelling in nature conservation.
   
• Amy-Jane Beer - an author, naturalist, and environmental campaigner. Amy spoke about the joy, healing, and transformation that we can find by connecting with rivers, and the importance of access in enabling us to do so.

We also nurtured creativity within our local communities, by holding a series of nature writing workshops. Tailored to children and adults respectively, these events included guided walks along chalk streams, folk tale performances, and creative writing activities.

We were delighted to welcome two local authors - and professional storytellers - as our workshop leaders: Amanda Kane-Smith, who is passionate about helping people to get inspired by the wonders of nature, and Dawn Nelson, who champions the use of story to connect people, landscape, and heritage. Our warmest thanks to both for their energy, expertise, and enthusiasm.

The festival may be concluded, but you can still enjoy our 'Reading Rivers' series, where we review river-themed nature writing. You can also dive into the wider world of chalk streams with the Watercress and Winterbournes scheme - there are talks, walks, a lovely volunteer community, and more.

Book reviews

Watercress and Winterbournes