In no particular order, here are my top reads of the year. I’d love to know yours too. It’s been a bumper year for reading, so I’ve included more in this end of year list than I normally do. This was a fascinating read. Kate Rawles built her own bamboo bike and then cycled the […]
Last night I read a poem at Kimberley Moore’s mid-week Music & Words event in Norwich which I was invited along to. I love the magic that Kimberley weaves at these events – it’s a beautiful, intimate pottery studio with fairy lights and beautiful artwork and plants and it feels like we’re in someone’s living […]
On June 29th we held our second online workshop with Shahd Alnaami, a talented writer based in Gaza. Joined by people all around the world, the title of the workshop was ‘Writing for Gaza – Stories of Resistance and Hope’ and Shahd used Palestinian embroidery, tatreez, as the motif of her workshop, which included a […]
I run Norwich Writers Rebel and every year we hold on an open mic in the Quakers Meeting House. Every time, I go through the customary panic of worrying that not enough people will come (they always do) or that they won’t enjoy it (never the case.) I like to have a mixture of music, […]
For my birthday last year, my husband Andy gifted me a ‘little library.’ Along with my 14 year old son Benji, they spent time working on it from repurposed materials and although it arrived just a little late, last week we had our official opening ceremony of the Little Lindford Library (Lindford Road is where […]
Paperboats is a Scottish literary zine, formed by a collective of nature writers. The paperboat is a symbol for the current fragile nature of our hopes for climate stability, as well as a campaign tool: over a thousand paperboats have been sent to Scottish MP’s. When they receive one, they will know why and how […]
‘Loving this Earth and its lives is a political act right now and so writing about it cannot help but be political too.‘ 🌿 A huge welcome to ecologist and writer Helen Baczkowska who I’ve known for a couple of years through Norwich Writers Rebel. Helen is one of these extraordinary characters who seems to […]
Towards the end of last year I spent six weeks alone in remote Western Scotland writing, reading, swimming, walking, thinking and enjoying a slower pace of life. I decided to stay on after a family holiday with my husband and three teenagers after the October half term. The Knoydart peninsula is often called Britain’s last […]
I’ve mentioned before that I run a collective called Norwich Writers Rebel. We are a group of writers of all genres who are exploring the climate emergency with our pens. However, people who are concerned about the climate and ecological emergency tend to also be looking at issues of anti-fascism, anti-racism, anti-colonialism, anti-war. For the […]
‘There’s millions of people, peopling out there, every day. It’s hard not to be inspired by that.’ ‘…you create the future by imagining it.’ ‘We have the requisite amount of goodness to do what needs to be done.’ ✨ A big welcome today to James Graham, better known as JimJames, who has come to writing […]