Lucy Jones
The Guardian
Contact Lucy
Discover and connect with journalists and influencers around the world, save time on email research, monitor the news, and more.
| Recent: |
|
| Past: |
|
Past articles by Lucy:
Beautiful, mysterious and misunderstood, mushrooms are finally having a moment
Fungi provide awe in abundance so get out there and forage in the mulch, while there’s still time, says author Lucy Jones → Read More
The more children know of the natural world, the more they’ll want to protect it
If children can’t recognise a swift, will they care if it doesn’t come back, ask authors Lucy Jones and Kenneth Greenway → Read More
Springwatch is a green jewel in the BBC’s crown
There’s a goldfinch nest in my garden. It’s at the top of a butterfly bush. It’s domed, neat and compact. I notice the birds have placed a few leaves on the more exposed side for warmth and shelter. I’d love to look into it but it’s too high up and I’m worried I’d disturb the nesting chicks. Luckily, Springwatch has started this week, and it has footage of baby birds galore. → Read More
Noticing nature is the greatest gift you can get from lockdown
Summer holidays abroad look doomed, but there is comfort and reward to be found just by being curious about your surroundings, says journalist Lucy Jones → Read More
At last, BBC One’s Life and Birth shows what having a baby is really like
A year ago, I gave birth to my son on our sofa. I was supported by my husband, two midwives, a birthing pool and “Les Fleurs” by Minnie Ripperton on repeat. It was horrific and it was the purest ecstasy. It was frightening and it was empowering. Over 12 hours, I stumbled into new rooms of pain that were beyond my imagination and I felt sweet elation. I stepped briefly through → Read More
Grayson Perry’s Art Club has a radical, essential message – your art doesn’t need to be good
At some point over the years, I picked up a pernicious and life-limiting idea, and I wonder if you did too. It’s the belief that there is no point in making something unless it is good. Worse still, that there is no point even trying to do something creative unless it’s going to result in an impressive finished product. I’m terrible at drawing, so I never do it. Awful at → Read More
Why is it still so unusual to see female masturbation on screen?
Run, Sky Comedy’s new show, created by Vicky Jones and exec-produced by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, was one of the best things I watched this week. For a start, the concept is intriguing. Having not seen each other for 17 years, an erstwhile couple, Merritt Wever and Domhnall Gleeson, text each other “RUN” and do just that, running away with each other across the country. (Travel: → Read More
The Beatles at 60: In times of trouble, listening to their music is like returning to the Bible
The Beatles formed nearer in time to the Spanish Flu (1918 -1920) than our current Covid-19 pandemic. This year is the 60th anniversary of the band’s formation but, weirdly in some ways, I’m listening to their music now more than ever. → Read More
In times of uncertainty, let nature be your refuge
Reconnecting with the natural world – however we can – is a wonderful medicine against anxiety and fear, says author Lucy Jones → Read More
Meet Suzi Leenaars, the oddball model messing with our feeds
Her Instagram is more meme account than modelling portfolio. → Read More
Ecological grief: I mourn the loss of nature – it saved me from addiction
I was struggling with my mental health when I started wandering daily on the marshes. The experience opened my eyes to the extraordinary healing power of the natural world → Read More
Christiane Ritter: Why this forgotten feminist nature writer deserves to be celebrated
In 1933, an Austrian housewife called Christiane Ritter travelled with her hunter-trapper husband to spend the winter in the icy wilderness of Svalbard. Five years later, she published an extraordinary book about how “the peacefulness of nature” affected her. It’s a radical, feminist text that speaks to the disconnection from the rest of nature we are experiencing at → Read More
Joaquin Phoenix will probably call out the Oscars over its climate impact. But what would be really radical? Not showing up
If you thought Joker made for uncomfortable viewing, just watch one of Joaquin Phoenix’s acceptance speeches. As awards show after awards show has honoured his role in the film, he has taken the opportunity to make everyone in those rooms squirm. At the Baftas, he took aim at the lack of diversity. → Read More
‘It’s good to be alive’: The Studio Ghibli films are coming to Netflix at just the right time
The news this week that Netflix UK has bought the rights to the Studio Ghibli catalogue was music to everyone’s ears (except soon-to-be-rival streaming service Disney+, one imagines). From 2 February, 21 films will be available, including Howl’s Moving Castle, The Tale of The Princess Kaguya, Kiki’s Delivery Service, My Neighbour Totoro and Porco Rosso. → Read More
From Amy Schumer's Growing to Beyoncé's Homecoming, at last we are talking about the messy reality of motherhood
When my daughter was born a few years ago, reading helped me make sense of becoming a mother. The baby books did my head in – I couldn’t find mine in any of them, and they all seemed to contradict one another on sleep routines and feeding. I needed stories that spoke to the weirdness of pregnancy and childbirth, the violence of sleep-deprivation, the confusion of a ruptured → Read More
Our Planet: We are already into the sixth mass extinction – Attenborough’s new Netflix series is just not urgent or radical enough
With its apocalyptic shots of melting glaciers, ‘Our Planet’ attempts to bring home the realities of climate change – but by now, nature documentaries should be going even further, argues our arts columnist Lucy Jones → Read More
Why is mainstream culture so quiet about climate change?
The weather in England has been weird. I got a little burnt sunbathing in February. The snowman in the garden had recently melted. → Read More
Stags in the city: how deer found their way into our town centres and back gardens
As the UK’s deer population explodes, more of the animals are heading into urban areas. Why – and will they be welcome there? → Read More
Streaming Michael Jackson's music is sending money to people who may have helped cover up child sex abuse
On March 1, a few days before Leaving Neverland aired on HBO in the United States and Channel 4 in the UK, a video was tweeted from the official Michael Jackson account. It showed a toddler, perhaps three or four years old, watching and dancing along to the video for “Thriller”. → Read More
Can You Ever Forgive Me? to Russian Doll: Good riddance to the chokehold of 'likeable' female characters
The first film stars I was obsessed with when I was little were Grace Kelly and Marilyn Monroe. Although I didn’t entirely understand what was going on in their films, I borrowed biographies from the library about them and thought, in my pre-adolescence, that they were the female ideal to aspire to. I learnt that women should be beguiling, charming, pretty, and likeable, → Read More