Polly Morland is a writer and documentary maker. She is the author of several books, including The Society of Timid Souls: or How to be Brave, which won a Royal Society of Literature / Jerwood Award, was longlisted for the Guardian First Book award and a Sunday Times Book of the Year.
Her latest book, A Fortunate Woman: A Country Doctor’s Story was shortlisted for the 2022 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, was a Times and New Statesman Book of the Year for 2022, Waterstones Non-Fiction Book of the Month in March 2023 and an instant Sunday Times Top Ten paperback bestseller.
Polly worked for fifteen years in television, producing and directing documentaries for the BBC, Channel 4 and Discovery. Between 2020 and 2024, she was the Royal Literary Fund Fellow in the School of Journalism, Media & Culture at Cardiff University, and an MA supervisor. She is also a Royal Literary Fund Bridge Fellow and an Arvon tutor.
Photo by: Ben Meadows
Interviewing inside the crater of Vesuvius. Photo by: Richard Baker