0.9Kg of CO2
112 litre(s) of Water
0.0067 Tree(s)
1 book donated to global literacy projects
Thunderstone :A True Story of Losing One Home and Discovering Another
Thunderstone :A True Story of Losing One Home and Discovering Another
hardback
Published:
11 August, 2022
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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.
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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
Prizes
Winner of THE ACKERLEY PRIZE 2023 (UK)
More Details
| Type | Book |
|---|---|
| ISBN13 | 9781783966578 |
| ISBN10 | 1783966572 |
| Number Of Pages | 224 |
| Item Weight | 1000 g |
| Publisher / Reseller | Elliott & Thompson Limited |
| Format | hardback |
Media Reviews
‘A memoir of great honesty and clarity, intimacy and subtlety . . . It asks profound questions about how to live through the storms of life with authenticity.’ Gavin Francis, author of Adventures in Human Being
‘A courageous, compassionate, uncanny chronicle of life and loss on the fringes. Striking in its candour, brilliant in its breadth, often very funny.’ Dan Richards, author of Outpost
‘Here is a writer who knows better than most of us how to live.’ Helen Jukes, author of A Honeybee Heart Has Five Openings
‘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
GoodReads Reviews
Author's Bio
Nancy Campbell is a poet and non-fiction writer whose books include Fifty Words for Snow, a Waterstones Book of the Month; The Library of Ice: Readings in a Cold Climate; Disko Bay and How to Say ‘I Love You’ in Greenlandic. Her work has engaged with the environment since a winter spent as Artist in Residence at the most northern museum in the world on Upernavik in Greenland in 2010. She was appointed Canal Laureate by The Poetry Society in 2018 and received the Ness Award from the Royal Geographical Society in 2020. She lives in a van outside Oxford.