Bella Bathurst writes both fiction and non-fiction. Her first novel, Special, was published in 2002 and was long listed for the Orange Prize. Her first non-fiction book, The Lighthouse Stevensons, was a national bestseller, won the 1999 Somerset Maugham prize and was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award. She has also written The Wreckers, published in 2004, and The Bicycle Book, published in 2011 by HarperPress.

In 2017 her book Sound was published by Profile, and was Radio 4's Book of the Week. Exploring deafness in its many forms including across the music industry and military, as well as telling Bella's own story of losing her hearing in her twenties and then unexpectedly regaining it twelve years later. In 2021, her book Field Work: What Land does to People & What People Do to Land was published by Profile, detailing the people who keep farming alive today in Britain and following the story of several farmers and their daily struggles.