Hutchinson Heinemann picks Allen-Paisant’s ‘intimate work of beauty’

Hutchinson Heinemann has picked Scanning the Bush, an exploration of herbs, plants and nature from poet Jason Allen-Paisant. 

Lemara Lindsay-Prince, senior commissioning editor, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, including audio, from Harriet Moore at David Higham Associates. The book will be published in spring 2024. 

Scanning the Bush is a “tender disruption in nature writing” that narrates “Black bodies’ relationships with land through their lived-in authentic experience”. It reflects Allen-Paisant’s life, following his move from Coffee Grove, Jamaica, and morning walks with his grandmother searching for herbs, to Leeds, where he tried to reconnect with nature. The publisher continued: “The knowledge Jason carries in his body is an archive passed down from generation to generation. This book is an attempt to preserve that knowledge and always connect to a history underneath his feet.” 

Lindsay-Prince said: “This is an imaginative and intimate work of beauty – a unique project in which history marries nature and identity joins botany. Jason is orchestrating a disruption in nature writing from the ‘grung’ [ground] up. Taking us deep into the bushes and land of rural Jamaica and transporting the knowledge embedded in his body and history to his new home in Leeds. This book is about preserving intimate archives of knowledge through generations, about the power of plants, herbs and fauna and feeling sanctuary right where you stand.”

Allen-Paisant commented: “This book is about empowering narratives of Black lives in nature and I’m so happy that Hutchinson Heinemann will be bringing it into the world; they’re home to some writers I’ve hugely admired over the years. Lemara is a dream editor; it’s so great to have someone who shares the vision for my project, who’s exacting in standards, supportive and an excellent interlocutor. I’m excited about the journey ahead.”