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Frieda Gormley

@friedagormley

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🌱Planting House of Hackney
📖”In the Company of Nature”. Published by Chelsea Green ,June 2026

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After years of interviews I thought I was reasonably prepared for difficult questions. Then my daughter read my book and the questions started. Without doubt my toughest (unofficial) interview yet... But probably my favourite.

Because ultimately this book isn't really about business.
It's about love.
And love for the living world.
And for those who come after us.

I love how the kids already know that we are Nature. The kids are alright!

Recommended by Future Generations, order ‘In the Company of Nature’ by Frieda Gormley at the link in bio. by @friedagormley

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a month ago

Last week was a pretty big week as weeks go .(I met the King and picked up the Kings Awards on behalf of our company ).

But the real pinch me moment came a couple of days later in a field in the Malvern foothills- Being introduced by Satish Kumar at the Resurgence Festival.

Satish is probably my greatest source of wisdom and influence (after Mother Nature... and brilliant husband obvs). At 90 years young, he remains the most radical person in any room whose very simple message is that to love is the most radical act we can do.
Reading his books, and later spending time at Schumacher College, fundamentally altered the course of my thinking and really the course of my life.
It was Satish who taught me the true origins of words like company ( sharing bread ), economy ( stewardship of resources and radical ( meaning the root ). Who reminded me that ‘human’ shares its roots with ‘humus ‘ -the living soil. That our language itself has been trying to tell us all along what we’ve forgotten.

Since reading ‘In the Company of Nature’, Satish has sweetly become one of its biggest champions. This month’s Resurgence magazine features an interview between us about our shared belief that business needs to go back to the roots of company and our roots as soil.

I don’t think I would (or our company )be on the same journey without his teachings and his living example of being a very humble and loving leader.
Go read his beautiful books and fill your boots with radical ❤️ .

Thank you @satish.kumar.foundation @resurgencetrust
@schumachercollege for your sacred work ❤️ by @friedagormley

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9 days ago

First time at @groundswell_agriculture and one for the books.A dream conversation hosted by @theseagull about ‘In the Company of Nature’. We found we had a lot of common ground !
It was special to have our ol’ regen farming neighbours @earth.farmers and @claire_hannington_williams in the audience: they introduced us to the word ‘regeneration ‘(and principles )when we first moved to Cornwall.The idea of creating the conditions for life to flourish and working with living systems rather than against them. As we listened to them, we found ourselves wondering: if these principles could regenerate a farm, could they also regenerate a business?

That question led us into the world of regenerative economics. We found no shortage of inspiring theory, but very little practice. So, 6 years ago, we decided to start feeling our way through it ourselves at House of Hackney.

We’re still learning.But as we’ve shifted our focus towards the holistic health of our company, much like a good farmer focuses on the health of their soil, we’re beginning to witness something remarkable- when you create the conditions for life to flourish, value starts to emerge in many forms- ecological,human, social. And yes,financial value too.Not as competing outcomes,but as deeply interconnected ones.Where all of it can flourish.

Being at Groundswell this week reinforced just how much farmers and business leaders have in common. At our best, we’re both stewards. One of land, one of organisations. In both cases, our responsibility is the same: to leave things healthier than we found them.
Secondly, the enormous sense of active hope I came away with was palpable at the festival (even coming out of the hottest weeks on record ).Farmers who are in the grassroots restoring soil, sharing knowledge, rethinking systems and showing that another way is possible.If we look after the soil, life flourishes.
A blueprint for how to live and how good it could be ! Thank you Lucy and to my publishers @chelseagreenbooks @rizzoli for making the conversation happen. ‘In the Company of Nature ‘is in all good bookshops and on audiobook. by @friedagormley

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22 days ago

My first live conversation about 'In the Company of Nature'.

If I'm honest, I'd imagined I'd have weeks to prepare. Instead, I was in deep the middle of bringing SOLSTICE festival to life with our team and ran out of time - and ran from sorting out blocked toilets straight onto the stage. As someone who isn't the most confident public speaker, and who usually relies on careful prep, there was definitely a moment of sheer panic beforehand when I thought, I've really dropped the ball here.

But the love and open minds in the room, combined with the powerful way @madamegandhi held the conversation, allowed me to stop worrying about saying the right thing and simply speak from the heart.

Ultimately, these ideas are in our nature. We don't need notes to remember. (Though note to self: say less "You know!")

The book asks us to remember something beautifully simple:

That we are not separate from Nature.

We are Nature.

Thank you, Madame Gandhi, for holding the space with such generosity and curiosity. It was a gift to have this first conversation with you - a woman who also champions that it is through the intersection of culture and governance that we can shift the narrative.

And thank you to everyone who came. Your encouragement gave me the confidence to trust the story rather than the script.

Perhaps that's what Nature has been teaching us all along.

Looking forward to another great conversation with @theseagull at @groundswell_agriculture this Wednesday.

'In the Company of Nature' is available now from all good bookshops.

Video by @immimay.doc by @friedagormley

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a month ago

Nature sang. She rocked. She raved. She (Boss) Morris-danced.

She laughed. She cried. She drank dandelion gin. She made lots of new friends.

And after weeks of rain, she finally brought out the Sun.

She also very considerately put the Summer Solstice on a weekend this year.

THANK YOU NATURE.

What happened at SOLSTICE was beyond anything we dared hope for.

As a first-time festival, there was an extraordinary amount of trust placed in us. Trust from artists, speakers, partners and everyone who travelled to Cornwall to join something that had never existed before.

Thank you to @cathyrunciman, Becky and everyone at @EarthPercent and @sounds.right for believing in the vision from the very beginning. Thank you to every artist, musician, storyteller, filmmaker, ecologist, activist, farmer, herbalist and witch who said yes on Nature’s behalf.

The theme of this year’s festival was Nature: The Artist.

And everywhere we looked, she was creating.

There was something beautifully ancestral about the weekend. Different tribes gathering beneath the Solstice sun, united by a shared love of Nature, creativity and the living world.

Yet during a week of record-breaking temperatures, the gathering also felt like a reminder of why culture matters.

Because before systems change, culture changes. Before policy changes, imagination changes.

And before we create a different future, we have to be able to imagine one. And in the Garden there was no shortage of BIG, bold, creative visioning that just made so much sense...

CONTINUED ON NEXT SLIDE

The Garden of Tomorrow was created as a place where celebration and regeneration could sit side by side. Where joy and responsibility are not opposites. Where the big conversations happen alongside the big fun.

What happened at SOLSTICE doesn’t stay at SOLSTICE.The true impact of the festival will be measured by what grows next.

The deeper invitation of NATURE the Artist is to remember that creativity is not separate from Nature but an act of expressing herself through us.

What has moved us most since the festival ended has been hearing how many people left feeling re-energised, with active hope and full of ideas and new friendsh by @friedagormley

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a month ago

This weekend, Trematon Castle hosts its first festival. It was a festival that brought us to Cornwall in the first place. The much-missed Port Eliot Festival showed us the magic that happens when artists, musicians, farmers, thinkers, dreamers and wanderers find themselves in conversation.

Over the years we've hosted all sorts of parties and gatherings at Trematon, but there has always been a sense that one day it might become home to a festival.

Trematon may once have belonged to the Black Prince, but anyone who has spent time here knows who really runs the place. Nature.

So when we finally decided to do it, the festival had to be for her.

What has moved us most is how many extraordinary people have said "yes" on Nature's behalf. And what a programme they have created.

This weekend we'll hear from @cosmosheldrake, @samleesong, @madamegandhi, @alexishotchip, @jeremydeller, @helenanorberghodge, @treecarr, @paul.powlesland, @advaya.life @andybebop, @arveene @islouisvi, @glenniekindred, @ariasaleja, @dazeaghaji, @sophiashnapp @finnegantui, @bossmorris @lauraemisch and many more.

We'll spend the weekend exploring Nature: The Artist through extraordinary music, art, film, storytelling and conversation - asking what becomes possible when we place Nature back at the centre of culture rather than the edge of it.

We'll drink tea and Javvy’s homemade dandelion gin made from herbs growing in the garden.

We'll call in the Solstice beneath the Norman Keep.
We'll dance beneath the stars.

And we'll test a simple hypothesis:

What if the big conversations and the big fun were never meant to be separate?

We're honoured to be supporting @earthpercent, an organisation founded on a beautifully simple idea: that if music has the power to move people, it also has the power to help move the world in a better direction. All profits from SOLSTICE will support their work.

Because the future won't be built by policy alone.
It will be built by culture.
By community.
By imagination.
And by people coming together.

Programme now live.

See you at SOLSTICE.

Love,
Frieda & Javvy by @friedagormley

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a month ago

One of the unexpected gifts of publishing ‘In the Company of Nature’ has been discovering the company it keeps. This summer I'll be taking the book's themes on the road and speaking with some of my favourite humans at some very special gatherings.

First stop: SOLSTICE this weekend at Trematon Castle, where I'll be in conversation with @madamegandhi.

Alongside being one of my favourite musicians, activists and former drummer for M.I.A., Kiran is also a Harvard MBA. In a lovely twist of fate, her mother is part of the team currently teaching House of Hackney's Mother Nature governance case study at Harvard Business School.

I'm excited to explore how we change the Nature narrative through culture, and how creativity, music, art and governance might work together in service of a more life-centred future.

The conversation sits within a wider gathering exploring this year's theme: Nature: The Artist - alongside @cosmosheldrake, @samleesong, @alexishotchip, @jeremydeller, @tree_carr, @paul.powlesland, @thelibraryofesoterica, @andybebop and many others , raising money for @earthpercent.

Then on to Groundswell with the wonderful @theseagull. It was my regenerative farming neighbours @earth.farmers and @claire_hannington_williams who first introduced me to the principles of regeneration. Everything starts in the soil.

And later this summer, a full-circle moment with one of my greatest teachers, Satish Kumar, at the Resurgence Festival.

Anyone who has read the book will know how deeply his teachings have shaped my thinking and my life. To share a stage with him is a real dream come true.

Looking forward to these conversations, and the many unexpected ones in between.

After my daughter's recent interview, I think I'm ready for anything.

See you in the fields,

Frieda

P.S, there are a FEW tickets left for SOLSTICE if you’re quick, at the link in bio. by @friedagormley

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a month ago

A year in the writing. A lifetime in the making. And inspired by 3.7 billion years of life itself. Today, ‘In the Company of Nature’ enters the world.

A few words of gratitude. To @chelseagreenbooks, and Charles Miers, thank you for believing in this story from the beginning. In a world that often feels driven by sales, it was a gift to work with a publisher who understood the importance of the story and kept its authentic voice. To my wonderful editor, Muna Reyal, thank you for your wisdom and cheerleading. To @thunderwingstudio for making it look beautiful - because the aesthetic is the gateway to the deeper stuff.

When the manuscript was finished, I was asked to make a list of people I deeply admired to invite to read in advance and hopefully, if they liked it, give a little quote. These were the visionaries, thinkers, writers, academics and change-makers whose work has influenced my thinking. I never imagined most of them would have the time, let alone say yes. Sending them my work was terrifying. Many of them spent their Christmas holidays reading a manuscript from someone most of them had never met. The fact that they not only read it, but responded with such generosity is something I will never forget (and hope to repay at some point).

Thank you to Vincent Stanley @patagonia, Satish Kumar @resurgencetrust, Sir Partha Dasgupta, Sir Tim Smit, @maryportasofficial, @janeshep, @johnbelkington, @elvisandkresse, Jane Davidson, @paul.powlesland, Anuradha Chugh, Peter Tufano, @jbfullerton, @danielchristianwahl

Books are far from solitary creations. While I may have written the story, and the words and views are my own, the mission has always been a collective one. This book grew from a journey shared with @Javvymroyle and my extraordinary team @houseofhackney, whose creativity and courage have helped turn many of these ideas into living experiments.

And gratitude, too, for everyone who has supported us and our journey over the years. Scratch beneath the aesthetic surface there is a lot of cool stuff going on.

The book may have my name on the cover, but it carries the fingerprints of many.

Love Frieda

Get your copy at @bookshop_org_uk & all good bookshops. by @friedagormley

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a month ago

For those who don't know me, I'm Frieda. Mother. Founder. Nature lover. Rocker/Raver/Goth. Observer of life. And someone who is more comfortable behind the scenes with my team than in front of a camera. I grew up in Ireland where humility is drummed into you from an early age. Which is why sharing this feels quite exposing!

Tomorrow, my first book will make its way into the world.
(Well, for grown-ups anyway. The first was written when I was 11 with a surprisingly similar theme and cover…complete with some encouragement from my hero at the time, Marita Conlon-McKenna.)

Over the past 16 years while building House of Hackney with my co-pilot and love, Javvy, I've found myself asking bigger questions. Questions about success/growth/value/purpose and our relationship with the living world. Questions that would eventually be answered in practice and would become this book.

At its heart, 'In the Company of Nature' explores a simple idea: What if we remembered that we are Nature? And what if our businesses remembered too?

Everything in these pages emerged from lived experience. From building a company and raising a family. Experimenting, failing, learning and beginning again as we asked what business might become if the thriving of life itself sat at the centre.

It's been a wild ride and this is the unfiltered version. It tells the story of one company attempting another way.

But if you're expecting a business book, it isn't really that. It's a very human story. A story about our relationship with Nature, with each other, and with ourselves, and what becomes possible when we remember that we are not separate from the living world but part of it.

Stories shape culture. Culture shapes systems. And systems shape the future.

So despite every instinct to stay in the background, I'm going to try and be the best vessel for this story.

There are books that have changed the course of my life and my hope is that this one plants a few new seeds. Because at its heart, the story is a love letter to Nature. To the possibility that another way. And it's for everyone who senses, deep down, that there is one.

'In the Company of Nature'.
Nearly there (eek!).

📷 @horwoodphoto by @friedagormley

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a month ago

Emergence is underfoot... 16 years ago, House of Hackney began with the simple belief that beauty has the power to reconnect us to Nature.

6 years ago, that belief led us down a path that would fundamentally change our business as we began the journey from sustainability to regeneration.

It meant recognising Mother Nature and the more-than-human world as stakeholders and exploring what happens when we place Nature and future generations at the heart of decision-making to create a business where all life can flourish.

Much of this work has been happening underground. It has been slow, intense, and at times, felt impossible, as we've had to navigate current systems whilst giving birth to new ones.

But over the past few weeks, we've felt deeply encouraged as the first shoots have started to emerge.

The House of Hackney case-study is now a part of the MBA curriculum at Harvard and Oxford Saïd Business Schools. It was a privilege to join Professor Peter Tufano and, alongside @brontiemaria, take students through this emerging vision of business.

This weekend, the Financial Times featured our very embryonic story of business. Thank you to @tiffdarke for telling our story & our call to move beyond the language of "natural resources" & recognise them instead as the sacred elements upon which all life-and all economies-depend.

To top off an extraordinary few weeks, thanks to the long and dedicated work of @paul.powlesland & @lawyersfornature, the River Wye became the first river in the UK to claim cross-border rights from source to sea. A real watershed moment that recognises rivers not as drains for pollution, but as living ecosystems worthy of protection, respect and a legal voice.

What once felt like isolated experiments are, dare we say it, beginning to connect into something larger.

In the words of Arundhati Roy:

"Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing."

Can you hear her too ?

Frieda & Javvy

P.S. For the full story behind this journey from wallpaper to wild economics, Frieda's new book, ‘In the Company of Nature’ is out June 16 available to pre-order at link in bio.

Wye Goddess image by A.Whyte by @friedagormley

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2 months ago

ONE MONTH TO GO!

NATURE likes a long night.
Lucky for us, the Solstice gives us one.
Three days of music, ideas, fun and collective remembering in a castle in Cornwall where Nature reigns supreme.

Limited tickets remaining.

Enter the Garden at the link in bio.

gardenoftomorrow.org.uk

#SOLSTICE #NatureIsTheArtist #GardenOfTomorrow by @friedagormley

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2 months ago

We are deeply honoured to receive The King’s Award for Sustainability. To be recognised in this way is both a moment of validation of the progressive work we are doing as a team and as a business, and also as a moment of reflection.

At House of Hackney, our journey has always been guided by a belief that business can - and needs to - exist in relationship with Nature. In this, we feel a genuine sense of kinship with His Royal Highness King Charles, whose lifelong, deeply personal relationship with plants, soil, and the living world has helped bring ecological thinking from the margins into the mainstream.

We are so grateful that he uses his platform to amplify the message that we must listen more closely to Nature - that we are not separate from it, but part of it. It reflects a shared understanding: that the health of our economy can never be separated from the health of the natural world.

And yet, this recognition also comes at a time when we must collectively raise our sights. “Sustainability” - the act of doing less harm - is no longer enough. The future calls us towards regeneration: towards actively restoring, renewing, and participating in the healing of the systems we are part of. It asks us for creativity, courage and imagination, but it also offers more in return: a world that is richer, more resilient, and more alive.

This is the journey we are on. From sustaining to restoring. From offsetting to insetting. From reducing our impact to creating positive ones. From seeing Nature as a resource to recognising that we are Nature.

It is our hope that in the not-too-distant future, awards such as this will evolve to reflect that shift - celebrating not only those who sustain, but those who regenerate.

With gratitude, and with a deep commitment to what lies ahead,

Frieda & Javvy taken in House of Hackney by @friedagormley

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3 months ago