Ben Jacob: 'Your descriptions must transport your reader to that place, to see, feel, and smell that living thing'
BY Emily Powter-Robinson
11th May 2023
Former Writing Your Novel student Ben Jacob is a university lecturer by day and clandestine ecologist by night. His debut The Orchid Outlaw is out today with John Murray Press. Described as a memoir, a natural history, and an inspiring call to action, Ben reintroduces us to Britain’s most endangered flowers and shows us how we can all save the world, one plant at a time.
We spoke with Ben about what sparked his interest in orchids, the rise of books about climate change/the extinction crisis and Ben shares his advice for nature writers.
You took our six-month Writing Your Novel course in 2015. How did the course impact your approach to writing?
Prior to taking the course I’d spent years writing as a hobby. Being in the Curtis Brown offices, meeting the agents and their successful writers, dedicating time every week to writing and reading the work of some very talented peers, encouraged me to take writing more seriously, to evaluate it objectively, and to make my work the best it could be.
Your debut The Orchid Outlaw is published by John Murray Press this month. It is described as a memoir, a natural history, and an inspiring call to action, reintroducing us to Britain’s most endangered flowers and showing us how we can all save the world, one plant at a time. Can you tell us a bit more about your book and the inspiration behind it?
I’d always wanted to write novels so moving to non-fiction wasn’t something I had planned. One day my wife suggested I write about what I was doing, which was, in my spare time, saving Britain’s native orchids. Ironically, this sometimes involved breaking the law to save the threatened species the law should be (but isn’t) protecting.
The more I thought about it, the more sense it made to turn my own experiences into a book, after all, it’s often said that writing about what you know is a good place to start. I blended my experiences, the history of orchids, some of the science around them, photographs, and nature writing into what became The Orchid Outlaw.
As I put the book together I applied what I had learned from the Curtis Brown course – narrative structure, pacing, and even dialogue. Adding these fiction-writing techniques to the non-fiction setting, I think, was partly what made my idea stand out for publishers.
In the book, you detail how you spent years travelling to far-flung jungles to see orchids in the wild. What initially sparked your interest in ecology, and specifically, orchids?
I’ve been interested in the natural world since I was a child – I think this is true of most children. For some people that connection weakens as they age. Not so with me, so I’ve been interested in ecology for as long as I can remember. As for orchids… I first encountered one when I was about nine, in a rather mundane garden centre. The flower though, a tropical species, was enchanting.
In time, I learned more about orchids and Britain’s own, sometimes rather overlooked, orchid species, their fascinating history (for centuries they were used as aphrodisiacs; Charles Darwin studied British orchids to prove his theory of natural selection) and their incredible life cycles (our orchids live for years underground without sunlight; some species can outlive a human by decades). The more I learned, the more interested I became. Orchids are unlike any other family of plants. I also realised that, all around the world and in Britain, wild orchid are increasingly at risk of extinction. This should concern us all because orchids are indicators of the health of our planet.
Can you share one piece of advice for writers working on nature writing and/or memoir?
Detail. For me that’s the most important basic ingredient. Your descriptions must transport your reader to that place, to see, feel, and smell that living thing. Picking out details and communicating them in an original way is key to doing that.
Books about climate change and the extinction crisis are flourishing like never before, not just in nature writing but across adult and children’s fiction too. Why do you think there has been this resurgence in the genre?
This probably owes a lot to the effects of climate change, which are increasingly impacting our lives, and the recent pandemic which foregrounded the connections between a healthy natural world and human wellbeing. Writers always address pressing social matters, so, curious and concerned, readers have an appetite to hear what is being said about these issues.
If you were to recommend just one book to readers looking to get into nature writing, what would it be and why?
I’d recommend George Monbiot’s Feral. It is simultaneously entertaining, emotionally engaging, inspirational and educational – things I think all narrative non-fiction should aspire to.
Finally, what’s next for your writing journey?
I only finished writing The Orchid Outlaw in January this year. Since then it’s been non-stop checking proofs, working with the publishers, their PR agency, writing up-coming articles for magazines and arranging promotional events. The next few months look busy with that, but I also hope to find time to start my next book.
The Orchid Outlaw is out now. Order your copy here.
Applications for both our six-month online and London Writing Your Novel courses close on Sun 14 May. Find out more and apply here.
The books linked in this blog can be found on our Bookshop.org shop front. Curtis Brown Creative receive 10% whenever someone buys from our Bookshop.org page.