She was considered an eccentric by some, eking out a frugal existence on a wild English moor, surviving off the land and exchanging her sketches of the countryside for meals.
But the first museum exhibition on the life and work of the largely forgotten nature writer and artist Hope Bourne highlights that her views on the environment, recycling, access to the countryside – even rewilding – were ahead of her time.
The exhibition, opening at Somerset Rural Life Museum in Glastonbury, asserts that Bourne, who died in 2010 aged 91, should be considered a significant nature writer and environmental champion.
Sara Hudston, a co-curator, said: “Hope Bourne was one of the 20th century’s greatest nature writers, whose work has been unjustly overlooked. Her ecological awareness, rejection of materialism and close relationship with the natural world are of increasing relevance. She had some very forward-thinking ecological thoughts.”
Bourne spent decades recording the landscape, wildlife, history and changing rural traditions of Exmoor. Her writing provided a small and precarious income.
Hudston said: “She was incredibly frugal. She reused everything. Lots of her artworks were on the backs of envelopes and shopping lists. She lived very lightly on the earth. She was very concerned even back in the 1970s with saving water.” There may have also been a practical reason – when she lived in a caravan, she had to carry water there from a hillside spring.
Today rewilding is taking place across the world but Bourne was talking about such projects half a century ago. “She called it the impossible dream and recommended reintroducing brown bears, wolves and lynx,” said Hudston.
Bourne was also interested in another topic that feels very current – the right to roam. “She felt people should have free access to Exmoor – as long as they were on foot or they were on horseback,” Hudston said. “And you could camp as long as it wasn’t deleterious to wildlife.
“I think, quite a lot of people saw her as an eccentric local character. One of the things we’ve tried to do in the exhibition is to say what she was really doing was creating the life she needed in order to make the work she wanted to make.
“Her inspiration for her creative work was so tied up with Exmoor but it was a hard place to live, it was no idyll. She said she wouldn’t want people to think she was some kind of back-to-nature idealist. She lived this way because she had to. She always said she had to because of financial reasons but I think she also had to live like that for creative reasons.”
Among the objects on loan for the exhibition are Bourne’s paraffin lamp, Roberts radio, compass, binoculars and Swiss Army knife. There will be displays of her landscape sketches, personal journals and published works.
The exhibition A Life Outside: Hope Bourne on Exmoor, is created in partnership with the Exmoor Society, which cares for The Hope L Bourne Collection. It runs from 27 September to 10 January 2026.
Hudston’s book A Life Outside: Hope Bourne on Exmoor will be published next year.
