Writing time

Writing with the Seasons - February 2024

Welcome to ‘Writing with the Seasons,’ a collection of writing prompts, ideas and inspiration that follow the rhythms of the natural world.

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My writing life began with a hundred days. I wrote a series of one hundred hundred-word stories, each inspired by a conversation with a different stranger. I heard about their love of yoghurts, how they sewed costumes for musical theatre, where they lost their hat. Speak to Strangers unfolded day by day online, then was gathered together and published as a book.

My first book: ‘Speak to Strangers’ (2011). On launch day, I left copies across the city for strangers to find

It was a celebration of the everyday, trying to capture fleeting moments before they drifted away. I had in mind Natalie Goldberg’s words: “Our lives are at once ordinary and mythical. We are important and our lives are important, magnificent really, and their details are worthy of being recorded.”