Madeleine Bunting is an award winning writer and journalist. For many years she was a columnist and Associate Editor on The Guardian before leaving to focus full time on book writing. Her most recent book, Labours of Love, the Crisis of Care has been longlisted for the Baillie Gifford and Orwell Prizes. In addition she has written four other works of non fiction including the prize winning The Plot, The biography of an English Acre and Love of Country, A Hebridean Journey. In 2019 she published her first novel, Island Song, and in July 2021, her second novel, Ceremony of Innocence will be published. She is currently researching a non fiction book on English seaside resorts and their place in nation-building over three centuries. This will be her third book which explores the role of place in identity. She is a regular broadcaster and has written four series of essays for Radio Three since 2014, and is now working on a new series on the role of ritual to be broadcast in December 2021. She studied history at Cambridge and Harvard, and holds an honorary fellowship at Cardiff University.