Angela Harding, artist

Nov 2, 2025

Angela Harding, an accomplished printmaker and illustrator, shares her journey from a creative upbringing in Stoke-on-Trent to becoming a professional artist at 48. She discusses how nature, especially British birds, inspires her work, emphasizing the raw edge influenced by poets like Ted Hughes. Angela reveals the constraints of printmaking that shape her style and reflects on her life experiences, including her volunteer work in Bangladesh and the challenges of motherhood. She also voices her concerns about AI in art while celebrating the beauty of handcrafted creations.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Books

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

Constraints Define The Work

Printmaking's constraints (limited palette, mirrored image, size limits) shaped Harding's voice and focus.
She found dyslexia helped her by making the print room a natural place to work reversed images.

ANECDOTE

Teddy Bears Survive A Sewer Fall

While volunteering in Bangladesh Angela fell waist-deep into an open sewer but saved handcrafted teddy bears she was transporting.
Locals rescued her and the teddy bears survived, a humbling, practical moment of charity work.

ANECDOTE

Personal Loss And Quiet Grief

Angela and her first husband lost a premature daughter and later endured risky pregnancies before having two surviving children.
She describes sweeping grief under the carpet and the era's limited conversations about baby loss.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

Angela Harding is an artist, printmaker and illustrator. Based in Rutland, Angela’s work is inspired by the countryside of the British Isles, and in particular British birds. Alongside her many prints and artistic creations, her award-willing illustrations can be found adorning many a book cover.

Angela was born in Stoke-on-Trent in June 1960, the middle of three daughters to Stephen and Joan Harding. It was an artistic household: her father, a headteacher, passed on his love of poetry to Angela, her mother taught pottery, and all three sisters would end up going to art college.

She left school at sixteen and, at her mother’s behest, did a pre-nursing course before pursuing her passion for art. She studied Fine Art at Leicester Polytechnic from where she graduated with a first in 1982.

After indulging her love of travel – both on her bike around Britain as well as on a Magic Bus across Europe – Angela spent twenty years working in the art world, from teaching to consultancy. During these years, she married and raised two children, then divorced and married her second husband, Mark.

In 2008, she made the life changing decision to pursue a career as a professional artist: she abandoned the media she had previously worked in and concentrated on linocuts and silkscreen printing.

She has worked as a magazine illustrator and today her prints can be found on everything from book covers to tea towels and greeting cards. Her advent calendars – first produced in 2015 – have become a collector’s item. She has also published several books of her own.

When she’s not on her boat sailing around the British Isles, Angela lives in Rutland, with her husband Mark and her whippet, Oaty.

DISC ONE: I Wanna Thank Ya (featuring Snoop Dogg) - Angie Stone DISC TWO: The Thought Fox. Written and read by Ted Hughes DISC THREE: Britten: Songs from \"Friday Afternoons\", Op. 7: Songs From Friday Afternoons, Op. 7: \"Cuckoo!\". Performed by Choir of Downside School, Purley, Viola Tunnard (piano), Benjamin Britten (conductor) DISC FOUR: Rise - Public Image Ltd. DISC FIVE: My Lady Story - Anohni and the Johnsons DISC SIX: La conga blicoti - Joséphine Baker DISC SEVEN: Skeleton Tree - LYR DISC EIGHT: Marie douceur - Marie colère - Marie Laforêt

BOOK CHOICE: Bird School - Adam Nicolson LUXURY ITEM: A lino printing set with champagne CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: I Wanna Thank Ya (featuring Snoop Dogg) - Angie Stone

Presenter Lauren Laverne Producer Sarah Taylor

There are more than 2000 programmes in our archive available for you to listen to. We have cast away other notable artists including Helen Oxenbury, Maggie Hambling and Quentin Blake. You’ll also find the Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage in our archive too. You can find their episodes on BBC Sounds or on our Desert Island Discs website.