Launched in July 2026, Nourish is a gripping eco-conscious thriller – for young adults and the young at heart – and perfect holiday reading!
We interviewed Laura Baggaley, author of both Nourish and Dirt, two of Habitat Press’s novels for teenage readers, about her latest book.
Here’s our Q&A with Laura…
Your first book, Dirt, was published by Habitat Press last year. Is Nourish a sequel?
It isn’t a sequel (although I am considering writing a follow-up to Dirt, since I’m so fond of the characters, Sam and Avril!). Nourish is the second of three standalone dystopias, all aimed at young adults. Nourish has similarities with Dirt. They’re both eco-conscious books and follow the Green Stories Project principle of embedding climate solutions into the narrative. Dirt was a romance, however, and more of a cosy read. Nourish is a thriller, with a focus on friendship and rebellion!
Tell us a bit more about Nourish.
Sure. It’s set in a post-food future, imagining a world where processed nutrition has replaced meals and there are mandatory daily PhysEx quotas. It seems like perfect health for all has been achieved. But of course it isn’t as simple as that!
The main character, Cal, is sent away to an exclusive boarding school when his father dies. But there’s something weird about Withycombe College… As the story unfolds, Cal has to find a way to team up with his enemy, and both of them have to take enormous risks in the hope of saving their mutual friend.
What inspired you to write Nourish?
I’m fascinated by the question of how we feed ourselves! It’s a simple daily necessity, and yet in the modern world it has become incredibly complicated. There’s so much conflicting advice about what to eat for our health. Then there are choices to make about the environmental implications of eating meat or dairy. We might worry about food miles, plastic packaging, organic farming, free range or just what’s affordable.
My YA novel, Nourish, emerged from all these conflicting thoughts about food. And after mulling things over and jotting lots of ideas in notebooks, this is what became the starting point for the story: the food industry is essential, and yet it is also killing us. Us and the planet.
Ultra-processed foods cause diseases to our bodies in the same way that industrial agriculture causes devastation to the planet. I know it sounds bleak! But it doesn’t have to be that way. Real food can heal us. Agriculture can be regenerative. There are so many ways to grow food that doesn’t damage our world.
Nourish is set in a dystopian future. How does that fit in with the values of the Green Stories Project and Habitat Press?
It was very important to me to create a dystopian setting that wasn’t gloomy! I wanted to build a future where a lot of good choices have been made, as well as some bad ones. That’s why, in Nourish, ‘Green Balance’ legislation has been introduced so that building construction projects all have to use sustainable materials and incorporate significant gardens or planting. It’s also the law in this imagined future that all consumer products, e.g. clothes and trainers, have to be produced in a way that is carbon neutral. More expensive, high-status products are ‘carbon positive’, meaning their production processes absorb more carbon than they emit, making them ‘carpos’.
I love the idea of a world where the most high-status possessions are the ones doing the most good to the planet! Where repair and upcycling are the norm and sustainability is the height of fashion. Where it’s cool to have a small electric car instead of a massive petrol-guzzling SUV – and where most people cycle or use public transport anyway. Imagine if all today’s billionaires were competing to use the fewest resources!
Do you think ‘eco’ books run the risk of preaching?
Yes, it’s a real danger! I work hard to avoid being didactic by focusing on the characters and the narrative – the most important thing is for the story to have a gripping plot, and the action has to be driven by believable, engaging protagonists.
No one wants to be lectured at! I always aim to weave environmental solutions into the world-building of my books, so they aren’t tacked on for the sake of delivering a ‘message’ or ‘moral’, but are part of the fabric of the imaginary world. In Nourish, things like solar panels, heat pumps and planting for biodiversity are taken for granted as everyday norms.
Why do you write for young adults?
In some ways, it isn’t a choice! These are the stories I’m drawn to. But I also believe strongly that young people are growing up in an uncertain, changing world and they need stories to inspire them. They need stories that show what can go right as well as wrong, they need stories that offer ways forward, and above all they need stories that encourage them to question and challenge the status quo. ‘Business as usual’ isn’t going to work anymore. Creative questioning, resilience and adaptability are the attributes we all need now, and I hope my protagonists embody these characteristics as flawed, relatable and inspiring role models for readers – young and old!
Have you been inspired by other Habitat Press books?
Yes, definitely! I remember reading D.A.Baden’s Habitat Man years ago, and thinking how wonderful it was to read an environmental novel that wasn’t depressing – it was so refreshing to find an eco-conscious book that was funny! More recently, I’ve loved the flash fiction anthology, The Last Plastic Fork and Other Green Epiphanies. It has such a variety of great stories – somehow they manage to be both easy-reading and thought-provoking.
Do you have any questions book clubs could use?
Yes, Habitat Press produces discussion questions for all the books it publishes and Nourish is no exception! The questions can be found at the Habitat Press website, here – scroll down to the bottom for questions about Nourish.
Do you have any future books lined up with Habitat Press?
Yes! I have a third YA novel coming out with Habitat Press towards the end of this year. It’s called Enough and takes social justice as its theme. In terms of genre, it combines elements of Dirt and Nourish – it’s dystopian, and is also both a romance and a thriller. This time, the setting is a future world where a medical breakthrough has solved the problem of endless old age: if a person has had enough of life, their ‘Switch’ flips and they instantly die. Here’s some blurb…
Fifteen-year-old Margaretta lives in fear of her Switch. Since her mum died four years ago, she has survived only by shutting out all feelings. Margaretta’s emotional armour starts to crack when she meets Sky, a charismatic vagabond, and runs away with him. Emotions can kill, but Margaretta has just begun to feel alive…
Are you working on any other creative projects?
I’m co-editor of a thrutopian magazine on Substack called Bending The Arc, which I think Habitat Press readers would love! It’s ‘thrutopian’ in the sense that it explores ways through to a better future. We publish stories, poems, interviews, articles and essays, all of them focused on positive futures and how we can get there – how we can bend the arc of the possible.
It’s free to subscribe, we produce two editions a year, and all the pieces are available to read here – do have a browse!
Would you say that Nourish is also ‘thrutopian’?
Yes, to an extent! Nourish does have dark moments – after all, it is a story of exploitation, deception and corruption! – but I’ve also packed as much hope into it as I can. Many of the characters care about the environment, and some of them even know how to grow food regeneratively. It explores how we could get things right, as well as the dangers that lie in our path. I hope readers will like the characters, I hope it’s thought-provoking and, most of all, I hope people enjoy the story!
Is there anything else you’d like to tell us about?
If you enjoy reading young adult fiction, or have young people in your life, do join the mailing list at my website for monthly book updates and reading recommendations!
Thanks for being our Author of the Month!
A pleasure!