Meryl Pugh grew up in Wales, New Zealand, East Anglia and the Forest of Dean, but has lived in London for 26 years. She has a PhD in Critical and Creative Writing from UEA and - having previously worked in schools, museums and libraries - now teaches creative writing and poetry for Morley College. Her debut poetry collection Natural Phenomena waspublished by Penned in the Margins in February 2018.

'A subtle, heartfelt and affecting book about home, the city and the self' Rebecca Tamas; 'Feryl Borough' is original, curious, expansive. Pugh's writing seeks beauty in urban surroundings, with echoes of Jenny Odell's 'How To Do Nothing' by placing value on looking, recording and appreciating our local environment and of Leslie Kern's 'Feminist City' on the joy, frustrations and solidarity of women navigating routes through the city. A brilliant, honest account of London, a place of golden sunlight and strange shadows, written with remarkable emotional clarity. Pugh holds up the city for us to witness in all its tiny, profound detail.' Gemma Seltzer; 'After five chapters, you'll wish you lived in Leytonstone. Five more and you'll begin to wonder about the natural treasures lurking in your own part of town. Another five and you'll be out in the park with your magnifying glass and binoculars. Anyone who reads this terrific book will also want to live it. This is a most democratic bestiary. Skylarks and buzzards enjoy equal billing with hawthorn and common wood pigeons. Bluebells, six-toed cats, an escaped boa constrictor... Each is subject of a mini-essay that revels not only in the joys of urban wildlife, but also the quirks and oddities. Nature, strange in tooth and claw.' Matt Brown; 'An intimate journey into places that are at once familiar and strange, known and unfathomable, Meryl Pugh's writing conjures a wild city full of wonder among the everyday' Kerri Andrews