Joe Harkness: key obituary facts
Is Joe Harkness dead? Yes. Joe Harkness died on September 4, 2026, at age 39.
Cause of death: Joe Harkness's cause of death has not been publicly confirmed.
What was Joe Harkness known for?
Joe Harkness was a British mental health activist, naturalist and writer.
More about Joe Harkness
Born: December 23, 1986.
Joe Harkness, a British mental health activist, naturalist and writer, died on September 4, 2026, aged 39.
Born in King’s Lynn, Norfolk, he became known for speaking openly about his own struggles with poor mental health and alcohol abuse after a suicide attempt in 2013. He later described birdwatching as one of the best forms of therapy and built an online following through his blog on bird therapy.
Harkness self-published Bird Therapy in 2018, a book that was translated into five languages, and went on to write Inside/Outside in 2023 and Neurodivergent, By Nature in 2025, published by Bloomsbury. His work was shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize in the conservation writing category.