Wylder Earth

Thanks so much for stopping by… I know you’re busy, so here’s my story in 500 words:

Right now, I’m a project manager (part of the Tipping Points team at the Global Systems Institute, University of Exeter), researcher (PhD student exploring positive tipping points for regenerative agriculture), mum (two lovely kids), swimmer, runner, yogi (none done very well), oh and I like to dabble in permaculture, and writing – hence the blog. I live in Cornwall, in the far Southwest of England so I’m surrounded by the sea, beautiful beaches and oak-lined creeks. It’s not a bad life!

My career has been eclectic. I started out as a writer and radio producer. I wrote two novels published by Penguin Books. After school, I was restless and questioning – I dropped out, lived on a double decker bus, got involved with environmental activism and explored alternative lifestyles. Writing was my way to process everything – the good, the bad and the ugly – I saw going on around me. I lived in Brighton, then London and worked in the media.

Still restless and searching, I opted for a career change into teaching. I’d had some tricky experiences growing up and again, I guess I wanted to process these and figure out human behaviour. I trained as an English teacher before specialising in working with kids with autism, mental health problems and challenging behaviours.

I had my own lovely kids and we moved to Cornwall. Once they were a bit older, I started a Master’s in Inclusion and Special Educational Needs. I was particularly interested in finding out more about neurodiversity – the way we each perceive and interact with the world differently.

When it came to choosing a topic for my dissertation, lots of ideas were floating around in my head. The noise around climate change was growing, but it seemed the environmental movement wasn’t very inclusive – it seemed quite elitist at times.

For a while I’d been exploring permaculture – creating an edible landscape in my garden, reading around the topic (Martin Crawford’s books on forest gardening and Gabe Brown’s Dirt to Soil).

Before having my children, I’d spent some time in Romania, where growing your own food wasn’t linked to saving the planet, it was more about saving yourself.

I wanted to see whether community food growing could offer a more accessible entry point to sustainability, by providing tangible and immediate benefits: nutritious food, social connection, gentle exercise, and access to nature. So I decided to explore social inclusion within community food growing projects. I got 92% for that piece of work and a distinction for my Master’s overall.

I really enjoyed the process of researching and writing so I started a PhD but with two children to support still, I’ve had to do this part-time and work alongside, starting as Project Manager of Arca, designing and delivering circular economy training programmes for businesses, before moving to the GSI (Global Systems Institute).

So, whilst I work on my thesis, I’ve carved out this Wylder space to be creative, get writing and start sharing along the way.

Thanks for joining me. I’ve love to hear from you, so please get in touch and connect with me on LinkedIn.

Hatty Wylder-Hopkinson