Hannah Bourne-Taylor's Radical Campaigns
Hannah Bourne-Taylor has become the breakout star of Clarkson's Farm Season 5 due to her passion for birds. The self-proclaimed "bird lady" revealed she once let a bird live in her hair for three months. The conservationist and campaigner, married to Olympic rower Robin Bourne-Taylor, has been keen to showcase her work to protect birds on her social media pages.
She hit headlines back in 2022 when she launched a national campaign to protect swifts, The Feather Speech, urging people to provide crucial nesting sites for the threatened species. For the Oxfordshire star, in her late 30s, her most eye-opening campaign saw her walk the streets of London naked, with her body painted like a bird. She has also protested naked with just a few bird silhouettes covering her.
Online Misogyny and Support from Husband
The campaigner, who also has a degree in fashion photography, had to deal with a lot of online misogyny after her radical protests. However, she was fiercely supported by her husband Robin, a former British Army officer and Olympic rower for Oxford. He holds a Conspicuous Gallantry Cross for his service in Afghanistan and while Hannah admitted it set the bar terrifyingly high, she said it was her husband who inspired her to be persistent with her campaigning.
Speaking to The Observer, she said: "I don’t think I’m in a particularly normal environment! My husband, you could describe, genuinely, as being like a superhero. But as an Olympic rower, he spent eight years of his life having this obsessive goal, for which he had to do something over and over again and expect a different outcome every time he didn’t win. What better lesson for my campaign."
Background and Marriage
Hannah and Robin, who is now a professional speaker discussing his experiences both on the frontline and in the Olympics, got married in 2015. Hannah spoke in her 2022 book Fledgling about how Robin had taken a new job in Ghana, where she saved a baby bird and developed a passion for conservation. The couple moved back to Oxfordshire in 2021 and a year later, she launched her campaign which gained attention all over the country.
The Naked Protest and Petition
During her naked protest, she presented a petition supported by the Royal Society for Protection of Birds (RSPB) and Rewriting Extinction. She then marched with protesters to Downing Street where she read out a letter to the then Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak.
Clarkson's Farm is streaming on Prime Video.
