Lockdown takes on an entirely different meaning for those behind bars. Reliant upon family members and friends visiting, as well as services such as the gym or library, over the past months of the pandemic these vital lifelines have all but dried up. A charity called Give a Book have worked hard to provide books […]
I started thinking about the title of this blog recently when I was looking through my bookshelf and pulling books out and I realised something: as I held the book in my hand, not only was I reading the title of the book and the author but I was also framing an image or sense […]
Several weeks ago, I did something I said I’d never do: I joined my first book club. Why was I so against it? I imagine it has something to do with the piles of un-read books lying around my house that I really want to get to. If I desperately want to read these books, […]
The below is taken from my June 2020 newsletter. I send out a newsletter once a month to subscribers in which I talk about what I’m up to with my writing and discuss topics I feel are important. If you’d like to be included in my newsletter, go to rebeccastonehill.com and pop your email address […]
The idea behind Independent Bookshop Week (running this year from 20-27 June 2020) is simple: If you’re not sure where your nearest independent bookshop is, search here, get in touch with them and check how they’re taking orders, buy a book and then tag them on social media to encourage more people to do the […]
Despite lockdown-kids-at-home-all-day-slow-progress (!), I’ve been working really hard on my novel, The River Days of Rosie Crow, and I’m over half way through the first draft. I thought it was about time I gave you a small peek into the workings of this book, so let me start with the words which initially inspired me […]
Self-isolate! It seems to be all the radio and news reports scream out at us right now. And alright, I’ll do that. I’ll stay at home to give the stretched hospital staff the best chance possible to contain this. To survive. But I will call it something else. Because isolation makes me think of people […]
Dear Ones, You will ask me stories about what it was like during the time of the virus, just as I asked my own grandparents about the war. I will tell you how at first I didn’t take it too seriously; none of us did. We listened, baffled, to the stories filtering in from China. […]
I am really delighted to welcome on to my blog Poet & Disability Arts Advocate Ann Young. I heard her read one of her poems at the Dead (Women) Poet’s Society in Norwich. A couple of working poets shared with the audience two forgotten female poets from the past, then during the second half of […]
The other day, a friend asked me if I’d had my ‘moment’ yet; that is, of truly feeling the weight and enormity of what we collectively are living through with the global pandemic. I think there have been plenty of ‘moments’ for me of ever-shifting tectonic plates of fear, empathy, bafflement, frustration, regret for what […]