All My Wild Mothers: Motherhood, loss and an apothecary garden

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While life and death go hand in hand, a thing Bennet knows first-hand as she experienced pregnancy loss, it is terribly difficult to grief ‘properly’ in a time which is stereotypically presented as joyous. New mothers, in any case, are often forced to internally fight with doubts, fears and negative thoughts, but this is exacerbated when death has also joined the party.

controlled, spare and with the particular magic of inviting the reader in right-up-close. An agonisingly beautiful, closely observed and compassionate love letter and leave-taking for a much loved mother.” ( Deborah Alma -- Poet, Editor & Founder of The Poetry Pharmacy) Establishing and running a family-centered community studio space offering traditional and digital arts workshops and eventStone by stone, seed by seed, All My Wild Mothers is the story of how sometimes life grows, not in spite of what is broken, but because of it. I admired the composition, with each chapter starting by highlighting a plant - it’s virtues, dangers and healing properties. What I really gained from the book was the vulnerability of the author and the impressive way she was able to encapsulate these emotions so psychically that I could live each situation along with her, a rare occurrence for me. Grief, pain, joy, death, life, pressure, relief, memories, childhood, oppression and bringing life into the world and the little battles and pleasures of growing. Can I allow myself to believe in the mystery, alongside the weight of truth, and learn to trust the beauty I find growing in the dark? I am currently working on All My Wild Mothers , a nature memoir that examines motherhood, loss, and the ancient art of wortcunning. This work- in-progress was long-listed for the Nan Shepherd Prize (2019) and the Penguin WriteNow Programme (2020). I am grateful to New Writing North and The Society of Authors, for awarding me the Northern Debut Award and an Authors' Foundation grant to complete this work. My ugly grief does not fit this pink-tinged world of motherhood. No one wants to hear about death, so close to birth. In my last trimester, there were no trips to buy baby clothes, no antenatal classes to learn breathing techniques for an easier birth, no numbers swapped with other expectant mums. When others were nesting, I stayed in my room and cried and, when the time came, I gave birth at home beside the coal fire, as snow fell from the January sky.”

An intimate weaving of memoir and herbal folklore, All My Wild Mothers is a story of rewilding our wastelands and the transformation that can happen when we do. It is also a reflection on motherhood, of one woman's experience, given her own inclinations, personality and the effect of being the youngest in a family of six children.Plant the seed. Find the small thing worth the gift of your hope. Whatever else comes, trust that it will grow, even if you do not see it flower." An impossibly moving memoir of gardens, herbalism, and the rigours and rewards of care… It heralds the arrival of an exciting new voice in nature writing‘ Cal Flyn, author of Islands of Abandonment I am a writer, poet and creative producer. I founded Wild Women Press in 1999 and have spent the last 21 years facilitating creative experiences and curating platforms for women to share ideas, stories, inspirations and actions for positive change, including the global #WildWomanWeb movement and #WildWomanGamer. I hold an MA in Creative Writing from Lancaster University (2002). Previous awards include the Northern Debut Award for non-fiction (2020), the the Mother's Milk Writing Prize (2017), The Writing Platform Digital Literature Bursary (2015), Northern Promise Award for Poetry (2002), and the Waterhouse Award for Poetry (2002). With nearly three decades experience working as a freelance writer and artist, my work includes poetry, non-fiction, video-game narrative, creative writing facilitation, and publishing. I am a co-director of The Wizard and The Wyld, an immersive digital-storytelling partnership.

Stone by stone, seed by seed, All My Wild Mothersis the story of how sometimes life grows, not in spite of what is broken, but because of it. Human Geographies -explores how literature can collaborate with immersive, digital spaces to share our grief stories - recipient of an ACE DYCP Grant 2021 A breathtakingly beautiful memoir, the best I've ever read. This is a book to take your time with, read again and again to savour every precious sentence, and emerge wiser to life itself' (Reader review) Lyrical and beautiful and feels like a haven in a cynical world - exactly the book we all need to read right now' Catherine Simpson, author of One Body: A Retrospective, When I Had A Little Sister and TruestoryAt seven months pregnant, Victoria Bennett was looking forward to new motherhood and all that was to come. But when the telephone rang, the news she received changed everything. Her eldest sister had died in a canoeing accident. Interview on The Naked Muse Photo-Poetry Project, 2011/12 -- Guardian/BBC/Huffington Post/WriteOutLoud/PhillyMag/View From Here/Poetry Foundation What a wonderful read this is. The memoir of author Victoria Bennett this is her story interspersed with pictures and descriptions of herbs and plants and their historical folklore and medicinal uses. Beautifully written, almost poetic, it’s a very relaxing read, like cuddling up on the sofa with a box of chocolates and watching a favourite film. That’s not to say it’s not emotional. It is. Very emotional. I had tears when her son was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at just two and a half years old - heartbreaking.

All My Wild Mothers is so good! Really distinctive, interesting writing...I've never read anything quite like it..." (Amy Liptrot, Northern Debut Award). I share quite a few things with the author: we have had a child at the same age(albeit it was my second, but due to a huge 14 year gap it does feel as if it's my first :D), I have shared the same worry for the wellbeing of my unborn child, but also the worry of having to deal with a potentially life long condition clouding our lives; I have home educated my first born and we very much considering doing the same for our second one; I am a bit of an amateurish gardener, having had a raised bed for some year now!. Sharing all this with Victoria made me really feel her heartbreak, to the point where I started imagining how it would be to suddenly lose my sister. I have had to rein in tears as I was reading, countless times! And saying that All My Wild Mothers is a raw and tearjerker read is an understatement! The narrative itself is an enchanting combination of memoir and herbal folklore, and it really pulled me in as Victoria weaves her story through details and facts about plants. Her writing is passionate, and in fact it reminds me of Raynor Winn and the way I felt reading about her pain and loss too. Motherhood is a big theme throughout; a kind of hard work that takes up mental energy you don't feel you possess in times of grief, but also spurs you on with a beauty and joy previously unimagined. Children can teach and remind us of so much that is simple and good in life, sadly conditioned out of us by the effect of a societal system that squashes it before it can have a chance to flourish. Victoria Bennett is a disabled and chronically-ill poet, author. Her writing spans poetry, memoir, non-fiction and games-based storytelling, and she has She written and talked extensively on grief, care, and writing through times of change.

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I absolutely adored this book. It is heartbreaking, beautiful, comforting and magical, and in fact really quite a credit to Victoria that she created such beauty out of the pain she experienced after losing her sister. I spent the last decade living on a social housing estate with my husband and son. Built over a former industrial stoneworks, it was here that we set about creating a wild apothecary garden. It also became the seed that grew my debut memoir, All My Wild Mothers - motherhood, loss and an apothecary garden. All My Wild Mothers was written over ten years between the hours of motherhood, care, and grief. An early extract won the Mother's Milk Writing Award 2017. It was then longlisted for the inaugural Nan Shepherd Prize (2019), and the Penguin WriteNow (2020) programme, and won a Northern Debut Award for non-fiction from New Writing North, and a Society of Authors grant in 2020. This encouragement and early support enabled me to receive mentoring and spend time working on the book. As a disabled, low-income rural writer and carer, these awards were invaluable and I will be forever grateful for them. A stunning meditation on the joy of nurturing (and of getting your hands dirty). It is a love letter to mothering and nature and mother nature, which bursts with wisdom, humility and hope. The writing is lyrical and beautiful… exactly the book we all need to read right now… What a wonderful book’ Catherine Simpson, author of When I Had A Little Sister A move to a new social housing estate in rural Cumbria offers Victoria and her family a chance to rebuild their lives. Constructed over an industrial wasteland, at first the barren ground seems an unlikely place to sow the seeds of a new life. Determined to see what can grow, Victoria and her young son set about transforming the rubble around them. With no money and only the weeds growing under their feet, they begin to create a wild, apothecary garden. Daisy, for resilience. Dandelion, for strength against adversity. Red Campion, to ward off loneliness. Sow thistle, to lift melancholy. Borage, to bring hope in dark and difficult times...