Thunderstone
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Description
'Here is a writer who knows better than most of us how tölive.' 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.
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'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
Book Information
Posts
it just accured to me that learning about the world and life in all its different forms and through the eyes of other people can prevent your world from falling apart completely just like i feel like the author is held and secured in a way by all these stories, something noone can take away from her but illness and growing old i suppose which is the thing that makes these words so fragile, jet honest and healing in a way since i really relate to the all in all feeling of seeing your life and the world we know falling apart in this messy and boundless kind of way while still having open eyes for small nuances. i feel like all these words she read are the ones that saved her cause as isolated as she might have been she is able to see and experience her surroundings closely and in support of the minds and words of others and through her own imense range of experiences. i feel like in the end this is what mattered more in this further collabsing society than building a secure but onesided life on the back of an illusion of safety. it makes me hopeful for the artist eventhough it is unexplainably hard to stay as close to realism as you have to in honesty. anyway, thank you for letting us take part in all of this, it was a real gift!!
Description
'Here is a writer who knows better than most of us how tölive.' 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
Book Information
Posts
it just accured to me that learning about the world and life in all its different forms and through the eyes of other people can prevent your world from falling apart completely just like i feel like the author is held and secured in a way by all these stories, something noone can take away from her but illness and growing old i suppose which is the thing that makes these words so fragile, jet honest and healing in a way since i really relate to the all in all feeling of seeing your life and the world we know falling apart in this messy and boundless kind of way while still having open eyes for small nuances. i feel like all these words she read are the ones that saved her cause as isolated as she might have been she is able to see and experience her surroundings closely and in support of the minds and words of others and through her own imense range of experiences. i feel like in the end this is what mattered more in this further collabsing society than building a secure but onesided life on the back of an illusion of safety. it makes me hopeful for the artist eventhough it is unexplainably hard to stay as close to realism as you have to in honesty. anyway, thank you for letting us take part in all of this, it was a real gift!!