About Fennel Hudson

Hi, I'm Fennel. I'm a writer, outdoorsman and conservationist. You've probably never heard of me. That's fine. I've spent most of my life hiding in hedgerows.

I'm also known as Nigel, Hubby, Daddy, and Professor Hudson. These are names with very different stories. So, for my nature writing, I'm Fennel: the gentle one with strong roots.

Fennel's been my nickname since 1995. It stems back to my early career as a gardener on a country estate, when I used fennel from the kitchen garden to flavour my fishing bait. The aroma stuck and so did the name, so it seemed appropriate to use as my pen name. It's helped me to separate my day job and writing career, always reminding me of who I am when I sit down at my writing desk.

In 1996 I began a little publishing endeavour called Fennel's Priory. It enabled me to share my writing about the natural world, rural life, and countryside pursuits. During the last 30 years I've published books, magazines, newspapers, blogs, podcasts, and films. More than two million words shared with my much-loved readers. I'm proud of this but I should have found more time to 'Stop, Unplug, Escape, Enjoy'.

My story

I was born in Worcestershire, England, in the early 1970s. Dad was a schoolteacher and Mom was a housewife whose family had farmed in Shropshire for 300 years. In 1976 we moved to a village next to the 6,500-acre Enville Estate in rural Staffordshire. Inspired by John Seymour's Self Sufficiency book and TV's The Good Life, we lived a simple and deliberately traditional life. Mom loved gardening and nature, Dad was a keen angler, and I was captivated by the Blists Hill, Acton Scott, and Black Country living museums. So I spent most of my time outdoors, gardening, fishing, and exploring the local countryside while dressed like a kid from a Victorian schoolhouse.

Life was very different back then. Wildlife was more prolific and diverse, the seasons were more distinct, electricity wasn't guaranteed and central heating was only for the rich. Being cooped up indoors wasn't much fun. Life was to be found outdoors.

I got my first job, aged 11, in 1985. 'An old head on young shoulders', apparently, which enabled me to work on Saturdays as a gardener at a local country house. I was too small to control a lawn mower, so I was handed a scythe and told not to chop my legs off.

Gardening suited my character well. Ever the reclusive introvert, I'm happiest in my own company and never more so than when I'm outdoors amongst nature. Being amongst plants gave me space and time to collect my thoughts, which resulted in my first book. Called 'Timekeep', it was a nicely bound handwritten thing that I shared with family and friends in 1985. It's a precocious tome for an 11-year-old, a time capsule of sorts that captured my thoughts and values for reference by my future self. It's kept me grounded for forty years.

I excelled in English at school, due to my fabulous English teacher and my love of reading. I wrote my second book in 1987, a Hobbit-inspired funny story about dwarves and a pyro-flatulent dragon, which was published by my school and placed in the school library. I was super proud. It led me to becoming editor of my school newspaper in 1988 and then, having been introduced to BB's countryside and fishing books by my physics teacher, I switched to writing about nature, angling, and rural life. I wrote four little nature books (extended essays) and then, at the grand old age of 19, began a phenomenally successful writing and publishing career.

Yeah, right.

I'd like to say that writing and publishing has paid the bills. It hasn't. Far from it. Like most writers, I've had a day job. 

I studied horticulture at college and landscape architecture at university, indulging my love of plants, ecology, design, and green spaces. I worked in horticulture until 2002, when I moved into sales consultancy.

I wrote prolifically until 2003, penning three thousand words every night. Most were letters sent to my friends, some where little storybooks, and many were fishing stories destined for a magazine that, due to shyness and low self esteem, I never submitted.

In 2004, after a bump in life's road, I met Mrs-H-to-Be. She discovered my secret writing and insisted that I do something positive with it. I decided to share the unpublished articles as letters with my friends and then, in 2012, I published them - along with new material - as magazines that became known as 'Fennel's Journal'. The last of these sold out in 2017, so I republished them as books. It's for these titles that I'm best known, along with my conservation and editorial work for the Wild Carp Trust.

These days I live in north Wales, where I'll be found exploring mountains and river valleys with notepad or fly-fishing rod. It's where I'm happiest, where I'm pleased to escape the bustle of modern life.

I'm still very shy and reclusive. I dislike social media. I rarely check my emails or answer my phone. I'm proud to be 'unplugged', doing my own thing.

I like proper connection. Quality time, togetherness, slow appreciation, comfortable silences. I enjoy writing letters, with a fountain pen and homemade ink. Often I'll include them with a signed book. They have purpose, real meaning: 'From me to you.'

Writing, to me, has permanence and timeless connection. Words written years ago still speak to us, connecting us to moments and people long passed. Through ink and paper, their voices remain.

I'm gradually republishing my back catalogue while working on new books, articles and media projects. It's a slow but rewarding process, always balanced with other activities and appreciation of life.

2026 is the 30th Anniversary of Fennel's Priory, so I've treated it to a new website. I might also publish some anthologies of my work to celebrate the occasion.

Thanks for being with me on this exciting journey.

Fennel