Mudlark swoops for Burton's 'classic in the making'

HarperCollins imprint Mudlark has swooped for “classic in the making” Notes from a Summer Cottage by award-winning Swedish poet and essayist Nina Burton.

HarperNonFiction editorial director Joel Simons struck a deal for UK and Commonwealth rights with Elisabet Brännström and Eleonoora Kirk at Bonnier Rights, and the book will be published in July 2021.

The publisher said: “Notes from a Summer Cottage is a beautifully written nature memoir about the time Burton spent renovating a cottage in the Swedish countryside, and all the species that she encountered during her stay. Within the walls, the ceiling and the floor of the cottage and its surrounding garden, she discovers a host of animals—ants, honey bees, foxes, squirrels, blackbirds, badgers, pigeons, deer and many more—all of whom have made her house and garden their home. A charming mix of lyrical prose and ecology, the book is a unique meditation on life, language and the natural world, and an unforgettable piece of long-form nature writing.”

Burton has been called one of Scandinavia’s most uncompromising essayists, and has received some of Sweden’s most prestigious literary prizes. She is a fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the literary association Samfundet De Nio, and has been guest poet at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

She said: “It was a Greek word for ‘house’ that once formed the term ‘ecology’, but the animals and plants I encountered around my old summer cottage were fascinating in a more tangible way. Not only did I find them outdoors on the property, with its mysterious paths under the trees; some of them were also in the walls, ceiling, and floors of the house. In every direction, I was surrounded by the conversations of life, which conveyed messages about some astonishing aspects of nature."

Simons added: “This is a beautifully written, life-affirming and captivating meditation on the natural world from one of Europe’s leading essayists. I’m absolutely delighted to be working with Nina and publishing her book on the Mudlark list in 2021.”