A Life Outside: Hope Bourne on Exmoor

Discover the extraordinary creative output of nature writer and artist Hope Bourne (1918-2010) in this new appraisal of her work on display at Somerset Rural Life Museum.

Bringing together many never before seen artworks, writings and personal belongings, A Life Outside: Hope Bourne on Exmoor offers insight into a singular voice whose reflections on nature, rural life and environmental sustainability remain profoundly relevant today.

Hope Bourne (1918–2010) was a writer and artist who spent almost sixty years recording the landscape, wildlife, history and changing rural traditions of Exmoor. Fiercely creative and resolutely independent, she led a self-reliant life that gave her the freedom to write, draw and paint.

Over the course of her life, Bourne produced thousands of drawings and paintings, authored books and pamphlets, illustrated works, wrote newspaper columns, and kept a daily journal.

The exhibition draws on collections within the Exmoor Society archives including Hope Bourne’s artworks, writing, personal items and new research by writer and Guardian Country Diarist Sara Hudston, whose book A Life Outside: Hope Bourne on Exmoor will be published in September 2026 by the Exmoor Society. The exhibition is co-curated by Kate Best and Sara Hudston, for the South West Heritage Trust.

Somerset Rural Life Museum is open Tuesday - Sunday, 10.00 am to 5.00 pm.

Header image: Hope Bourne, 8 August, 2001 aged 82. Photographed by Mark J Rattenbury © Mark J Rattenbury (detail).