About

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 andĀ New StatesmanĀ 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. She is a regular contributor to newspapers and magazines and was the Royal Literary Fund Fellow in the School of Journalism, Media & Culture at Cardiff University between 2020 and 2023.

Polly Morland speaking at LDM

Photo by: Ben Meadows

Polly Morland and vulcanologist Giuseppe Mastrolorenzo

Interviewing inside the crater of Vesuvius. Photo by: Richard Baker