Robert Macfarlane thinks it is likely to last, reports David Hewett-Silk.

Despite being due at a drinks reception in his honour, one of Britain's finest nature writers Robert Macfarlane was kind enough to grant me a brief, unbooked interview after giving a fascinating lecture for Exeter University on Literature and Environmental Awareness. He is best known for his books The Wild Places and Mountains of the Mind. Is the apparent new taste for nature for nature writing real, I asked him? And is it likely to last?

Robert felt that we should expect both a surge in nature writing and a backlash against it. There seems to be nature fatigue in reviewers, he said; one Sunday newspaper reviewer had even told him it was “last year’s fad”, which suggests that the backlash is already happening.

However, Robert confided that publishers are still actively seeking new writing talent in the field. And the fact that there are, in 2010, at least five new and oversubscribed MA courses linking writing with nature and ecology seems to guarantee a market for at least five more years.

Route to publication

So how should aspiring nature writers go about reaching these keen publishers? I asked Robert to describe his own route to publication, and offer advice to those of us seeking to be published.

Robert began his writing career by reviewing for small journals. This, he said, helped his credibility when he met an editor through his friend Roger Deakin. She told him that he needed to submit a book proposal and sent him an example of a successful proposal. After spending six months writing his proposal, Robert circulated it to agents. The first four turned it down but the fifth offered to take him on. Only later did he realise how lucky he had been. Granta had seen his reviews, located his agent, and put in a pre-emptive offer of a two book contract. (Pre-emptive means it never went to auction). He has recently signed a further two book contract with Penguin, which he sees as a road to a wider readership.

Advice for writers

In terms of advice for all aspiring non-fiction writers, not just those working in the nature genre, Robert suggests the following:

• First, find out how to write a proposal.

• Try some creative journalism.

• When writing, be prepared to “copiously self-medicate with doubt and arrogance.” In other words, when you are doubtful that what you are writing has merit, go and find something you are proud of having written and re-convince yourself that you are a great writer.

• Conversely, when everything is coming to you easily, remember to keep checking that you are getting it right.