Entries by Rebecca Stonehill

In Defence of Life and Love

IN DEFENCE OF LIFE AND LOVE. A CONTEMPLATION WRITTEN IN HAIKU Morning I leave and wildflower meadow grounds me: cornflower, sainfoin. This is why I go. I will march for this beauty; this wildness roots me. The London-bound train, my curly-headed daughter writes in her journal. She challenged me and it’s because of her I’m […]

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How to start a new novel

I finished writing The River Days of Rosie Crow a pretty long time ago now. Before that gem of a Christmas present knocked at my door of agent representation back in December, I was spending my time – A LOT of time – sending that novel off to agents and publishers and sometimes hearing back, […]

Interview with young writer Mandisa Mathew

‘There is something freeing about being in a world you have complete control over.’ It’s wonderful to have on the blog today seventeen year old Mandisa Mathew. We knew Mandisa’s family when we lived in Nairobi; Mandisa was a friend of my daughter’s and I remember being amazed to discover when she was nine years […]

Just Stop Oil – Criminals or Heroes?

My sixteen year old daughter has challenged me in the past months, asking me why we talk about our concerns around climate change, but never get involved in activism. We talk about it, feel angry, afraid and a whole range of other emotions, but it stops there. António Guterres, UN Secretary General, stated at last […]

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Top Five Books of 2022

In no particular oder, here are my top five reads from this past year, books that have stayed with me and I know will do for some time. I have three fiction here, one non-fiction and a travelogue. I’m not normally into anything vaguely dystopian, but this one reeled me in and had me hooked […]