Writing
I was inspired to become a biologist because of the natural world around my childhood home in the New Forest in the south of England. My career brought me to the US, and a different natural history world to discover.
My natural history writing is mostly local to the beautiful Finger Lakes of New York State, where I live. Near the Forest, By the Lake (2025) is a personal reflection on the lives and habits of the plants, birds, insects, and other creatures inhabiting my local landscapes. Nature on the Doorstep (2023) is even more local, providing a weekly account of the wildlife in my small and decidedly ordinary suburban backyard over the course of a year.
I am a member of The Authors Guild.
Near the Forest, By the Lake
Near the Forest, By the Lake (Cornell University Press, May 2025) celebrates the natural world close to home, recognizing that local nature is worldwide: your familiar world may be an unknown faraway place for me, and vice versa. Everyone’s local environment, be it city sidewalk or country meadow, can offer a glimpse of nature’s splendor.
The informal essays in Near the Forest, By the Lake, include the salamanders migrating in early spring, the butterflies of high summer, the yellow goldenrods of the fall, and the rafts of ducks on the lake in winter. I delve into some of nature’s mysteries, from why certain birds sing in fall to how turtles survive the winter in ice-sealed ponds, and I weave the inevitable fingerprint of human activities into my explorations of the diversity of the living world.
A Cornell University Press podcast about the book is available here.
Turn off those cell phones and go outside, near the forest or by the lake, where, guided by the keen eye of Angela E. Douglas, you can experience in any month, at any time of year, the natural world unfolding in its splendid glory.
– Deborah Cramer, author of The Narrow Edge
Douglas inspires curiosity with descriptive accounts of seasonal observations near her home, allowing readers to feel that they are by her side, asking questions along with her. She encourages our minds (and feet) to wander and wonder.
– Dorothy F. McLeer, Environmental Interpretive Center, University of Michigan–Dearborn
Angela E. Douglas has written a collection of essays that are both entertaining and scientifically accurate—two very difficult tasks. They will inspire her readers to get out in nature and ‘do likewise’ wherever they live.
– L. J. Davenport, author of Nature Journal
Further information and details for ordering Near the Forest, By the Lake are available at Cornell University Press
Nature On The Doorstep
Nature on the Doorstep (Cornell University Press, 2023) celebrates the local natural world, from the first spring flowers, to the fireflies and cicadas of high summer, to the chipmunk that frantically hoards food in preparation for winter – and onward to snowstorms and jumping snow fleas. Some actors on the backyard stage are permanent companions: the squirrels, the blue jays and the towering black walnut tree. Other players have brief cameo parts, including the stinky skunk that might be hiding under the car, and the snow geese flying high overhead on their annual migration between the high Arctic and the southern reaches of the continent.
A Cornell University Press podcast about the book is available here.
A podcast with Bethan Burton Journaling with Nature is available here.
A video of the Cornell University Mann Library Chats in the Stacks book talk on Nature on the Doorstep (2 November 2023) is available on the Mann Library YouTube channel here.
I have also provided a book talk about Nature on the Doorstep at the Tompkins County Public Library (20 March 2023). This event was supported by The Odyssey Bookshop.
My writing about the natural world is ongoing, including –
Creating my island is a reflection on the fictional possibilities of biological rewilding, published in the Winter 2024 edition of the online magazine Monologging.
Say it with flowers, is a multi-media contribution in collaboration with Isha Liu to the 2022 edition of the online magazine Monologging.
My experience of the world of science and academic life is also informing my writing. I am particularly focused on developing these themes through fiction.
I have written on the customs and conventions of academic life in the US, published by Times Higher Education:
Coming to terms with terminology: the basics of university teaching and research in the US (8 Oct 2021)
Applying for an academic position in the US: the basics explained (19 Jan 2022)