Description
*WINNER OF THE ACKERLEY PRIZE 2023*`Here is a writer who knows better than most of us how to?live.' Helen Jukes, author of A Honeybee Heart Has Five Openings`There is just one object I want to carry inside the van... It was believed lightning would not strike a house that held a thunderstone. I place this fossil on the windowsill, its surface gleaming like cat's eyes ahead of me on a dark road.'In the wake of a traumatic lockdown, Nancy Campbell buys an old caravan and drives it into a strip of neglected woodland between a canal and railway. There is no plumbed water, no electricity point and the walls are as thin as a Kinder egg. But it is the first home she has ever owned. As summer begins, Nancy embraces the challenge of how to live well in a place in which possessions and emotions often threaten to tumble, clearing industrial junk from the soil, forging unconventional friendships off-grid and helping the wild beauty surrounding her to flourish. But when illness and uncertainty loom once more, she has to find a way to hold on to beauty and wonder, to anchor herself in this van, this safe space, this shelter from the storm. An intimate journal across the space of a defining summer, Nancy Campbell's memoir is celebration of the people and places that hold us when the storms gather; a soul-shaking journey that reminds us what it is to be alive. ___`The most thoughtful and soothing book I've read this year.' Daily Mail`A beautiful and often very funny account of hope and healing in the face of illness and uncertainty.' TLS`How to find beauty and wonder even in the most trying of circumstances' The Scotsman`An uplifting, heart-filled read full of hope and love.' Lulah Ellender, author of Grounding
Binding: Hardback
Binding: Hardback