Writer and Research Fellow

Esther Rutter is a non-fiction author from Suffolk who is now based in Scotland. Before becoming a freelance writer, she worked in arts education at the Wordsworth Trust, the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum, and UNESCO City of Literature Trust in Edinburgh, and currently holds a Research Fellowship at the University of St Andrews.

Esther’s first book, This Golden Fleece: A Journey Through Britain’s Knitted History (Granta, 2019), traces the social and cultural history of the art of knitting, won a Society of Authors' Roger Deakin Award and is for sale here. Her second book, All Before Me: A Search for Belonging in Wordsworth’s Lake District (Granta, 2024), explores the importance of creativity and community and is for sale here.

Esther appears regularly on national radio, including BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour and All In The Mind and Radio 3 Free Thinking programmes. She also writes for publications including Vogue, The Herald, Granta Magazine, Countryfile, and The Irish Times. She is a popular speaker who has appeared at festivals across Britain, including Edinburgh International Book Festival, Cambridge Literary Festival, and York Festival of Ideas.

Esther also works as a scriptwriter, most recently with acclaimed filmmaker Alex Ingle, and you can see some examples of their work here: Atlas Film.