Jay Griffiths

Writer, Wales, UK

Jay Griffiths is an award-winning author and contributor to The Guardian and Orion magazine. Her books include Tristimania: A Diary of Manic Depression (2016), Why Rebel (2021) and How Animals Heal Us (2025). She lives in Wales, UK.

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Written by Jay Griffiths

Silhouette of a bird on a branch against a golden sunset sky.

essayAnimals and humans

Life thrums with music

Listen to the boundless sounds of nature, the great animal orchestra, whose songs imbue the world with fresh meaning

Jay Griffiths

Decorative offerings in woven baskets, featuring colourful flowers, leaves and incense sticks, placed on a stone surface outdoors.

essayRituals and celebrations

Daily grace

Everyday rituals are ephemeral prayers, a hint to the gods for protection, encircling life like a fragrant garland

Jay Griffiths

A Cubist painting depicting soldiers, machinery and a central figure with a sextant featuring fragmented geometric shapes and vibrant colours.

essayPolitics and government

Fire, hatred and speed!

The glamour, bullying and violence of the libertarian alt-Right has a direct political ancestor, and it’s not Nazi Germany

Jay Griffiths

Two boys in white shirts with red collars sitting indoors looking thoughtful with a framed picture on the wall behind them.

essayEducation

Schooled in nature

There’s a way to teach children without colonising their minds: the lifelong way of the indigenous people of Mexico

Jay Griffiths

An actor on stage wearing a fur robe and a mask on his back, with arms raised in an expressive pose.

essayConsciousness and altered states

Forests of the mind

What is the greatest human gift? It is metaphor, carrying a cargo of meaning across the oceans that divide us

Jay Griffiths