Writing Wild 27
On gardens, wildness, and cultivating connections
Hello, wonderful wild ones - and welcome to those who have joined the Wild Women Writers’ Salons recently.
Thank you to everyone who joined Wild Women Writers Salon 25: Growing Wild: on gardens, wildness, and cultivating connections.
Despite being ridiculously hot, it was a regenerative and nourishing conversation, full of joy, connection, and wild wisdom. A huge thank you also to my guest authors, Marian Boswall (The Kindest Garden), Kate Bradbury (One Garden Against the World), JC Niala (The New Eden) and Sarah Rigby (This Allotment), to our wonderful BSL interpreters Sarah Forester and Beth Malcolm (supported by Creative Scotland), Adam, for providing behind the scenes tech support, and to all of you for bringing your words and your wild to the salon and holding the space so gently. The salons are always shaped by those who share and support them. You are what makes this a community of change.
At the heart of the conversation was a shared dedication to growing a wilder, wiser, more connected world — one small seed at a time. And though the conversation focused on gardens and growing, it was obvious that the insight and wisdom it offered was equally true of all that we grow in our lives — from our creative works to our relationships with ourselves, each other, and the more-than-human — and the communities we grow around us that help us thrive.
I hope that you enjoy/ed the conversation as much as we did. Whether you joined us live or are watching later, I am grateful for your presence.
If you want to read more about the salon, I am delighted to share Claire Greenslade's review below.
With gratitude,
Victoria
PS We are taking the month off for July, but we are back in August!
We will gather online on Thursday, 27th August, 7-830pm BST, for Salon 26: Ancient Ground — Writing from the bones of the land: history, home, and belonging.
I’ll be joined by the wonderful Raine Geoghegan ( The Talking Stick: O Pookering Kosh), Rebecca Beattie (Wheel of the Year) , Nicola Chester (Ghosts of the Farm) and Sophie Pierce (Rock Idols). Details of the salon below. Tickets available now.
Review of Salon 25 by Claire Greenslade
Last night I attended a Zoom ‘lecture’ called Wild Women Writers salon 25, titled Growing Wild on gardening, wildness, cultivating and connection. Lecture is the wrong word for this online event, as it had none of the stuffiness occasionally associated with a lecture.
Hosted by author and wild gardener Vik Bennett, the guest speakers were Kate Bradbury (author of ‘One Garden Against the World ’ and ‘The Bumblebee Flies Anyway), Marian Boswall (The Kindest Garden’, ‘Sustainable Garden’), JC Niala (‘The New Eden’) and Sarah Rigby (‘This Allotment’)
I had never attended one of these sessions before, so I had no idea what to expect.
What I was met with straight away was warmth. Vik is a superb host, bringing everything together with kindness and support at the fore.
All four authors (5, including Vik herself - ‘All My Wild Mothers’, ‘The Apothecary By The Sea’) had chosen the questions to ask each other. This really gave the vibe of a laid-back conversation between authors and made it so enjoyable and loose.
The ‘wild’ women all began by reading a section from one of their books to introduce themselves and their narratives. I loved this as a quick ‘getting to know you ’ method.
One of the main takeaways for me of the evening was the discussion about finding the balance between intention and letting go. By our very nature, many gardeners are control freaks. We have all learnt to control nature to some extent through human intervention. But we all know we need to step back, to give nature back some power, and to watch, observe and learn from her.
I could really relate to this. During Covid, I was the head gardener of a historic estate in Somerset called Hestercombe Gardens. Suddenly, 120 acres had to be managed by me and one other gardener. We very quickly learnt to do what was necessary and let go of what wasn’t. It was such a privileged experience to witness the wildlife return so quickly and so abundantly once we took our foot off the gas. I learnt a valuable lesson and have managed gardens differently ever since.
JC Niala spoke about lessons she had learnt from Steiner teachings and biodynamics - if you have to force something, you usually don’t get good results. She shared a couple of brilliant Steiner approaches aimed at raising children, but they made perfect sense in a garden setting, too. These were ‘watchful waiting’ and ‘active non-interference’
The wild women talked about balancing our human perception of the perfect and the good aesthetic with being patient enough to wait and let nature solve the problems and give us the answers.
It was such a lovely way to spend an evening. Even in these sometimes very dark times, all the women came from a place of positivity, shared experience, community, and hope. It was a really uplifting talk to attend. I would really recommend watching the recording to hear these Wild Women’s voices.
(Claire Greenslade - former Head Gardener, Hestercombe Garden Trust)
Missed the salon?
If you missed it, don’t forget that if you upgrade to a paid subscription, you can access the recording below in this newsletter (and all recordings for the season as we go forward) — as well as extra author interviews, book recommendations and writing prompts! Plus, you will be helping support the behind-the-scenes work that makes the salons happen.
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Signposts
For those who want to dive deeper with our Salon 25 guests.
Instagram
Follow Victoria Bennett https://www.instagram.com/beewyld/?hl=en
Follow Marian Boswall https://www.instagram.com/marianboswall/?hl=en
Follow Kate Bradbury https://www.instagram.com/kategbradbury/?hl=en
Follow JC Niala https://www.instagram.com/jcniala/?hl=en-gb
Follow Sarah Rigby https://www.instagram.com/sarah_e_rigby/
Substack
Other Opportunities & Events
Book Coaching with Sarah Rigby — Sarah has a few slots coming up — but they go quickly, so if you are interested, do get in touch with her through this LINK
Lessons in Listening - a Land Art Residency (with Marian Boswall and others) 16th - 23rd September 2026 Dartmoor, Devon, UK https://landartcollective.com/listening
Connection To The Land with Marian Boswall Saturday 17 October 2026 10:30 16:30 https://www.heeled.in/events/-with-marian-boswall
Wild Weekend – Listening to The Land – with Marian Boswall & Brid Walsh Fri 19th - Sun 21st Mar 2027 https://www.42acres.com/retreats/wild-weekend-listening-to-the-land-with-marian-boswall/
AUGUST SALON
Thursday 27th August 2026 — 7- 8.30 pm BST
Ancient Grounds — Writing from the bones of the land: history, home, and belonging.
What stories lie beneath our feet? How does a landscape remember those who have lived upon it? And how might writing help us uncover the hidden connections between ourselves and the ground beneath us?
For our Wild Women Writers’ Salon 26, we invite you to join us for an evening exploring the ancient landscapes that continue to shape our lives and imaginations. Together, we will consider how history is carried through place, entwined with geology, archaeology, and the stories we carry, and explore how writers return to the land to understand identity, ancestry, and home.
Hosted by Victoria Bennett, the evening promises a rich conversation spanning folklore, natural history, personal narrative, cultural memory, and the enduring pull of the places that make us. It brings together four remarkable writers whose work explores landscape, belonging, and the deep histories embedded within the natural world.
Joining us
Raine Geoghegan is an award-winning Romany writer, poet and storyteller whose work explores identity, heritage, language and belonging. Through poetry, theatre, and memoir, she gives voice to histories that have too often been overlooked, offering powerful reflections on memory, community and place.
Rebecca Beattie writes about nature, landscape, folklore and the stories that emerge from the places we inhabit. Her work explores the ways in which ancient beliefs, ecology, and personal experience intersect, inviting us to look more closely at the landscapes around us.
Nicola Chester is an award-winning nature writer whose work celebrates the intimate relationship between people and place. Rooted in the landscapes of the farmed countryside, her writing weaves together wildlife, memory, history and belonging with warmth and lyricism.
Sophie Pierce explores Britain’s ancient places through archaeology, history and walking. Her writing invites readers to encounter prehistoric monuments, sacred landscapes and forgotten histories, revealing the enduring presence of the past within contemporary life.
More about our guest authors below!
Access Notes
100% Online
We prioritise comfort and self-care during the salons — and all the rest of the time too!
Recorded for delayed viewing with subtitles
Captions will be available during this event
All ticket holders receive a link to the recording after the event (within 7 - 10 days)
We believe accessibility should be built into every event, not added as an afterthought. In light of this, we endeavour to make our events BSL-supported as standard. At this time, thanks to funding from Creative Scotland, we can do this for a selection of our events in the current programme. This will be marked on the individual event if available.
About the authors:
The Wild Women Writers’ Salons are carefully curated to bring together writers whose words resonate with one another, creating a space for meaningful, creative conversation among authors, readers, and all those interested in living life a little more wildly. In Salon 26, I will be joined by:
Nicola Chester
Author of Ghosts of the Farm: Two Women’s Journeys Through Time, Land and Community
Nicola Chester is an award-winning nature writer whose work celebrates the beauty, complexity and cultural richness of Britain’s farmed landscapes. Living and writing from the North Downs, she explores the intimate relationship between people, nature, and place, revealing how nature and human history have always been deeply intertwined. Her acclaimed memoir On Gallows Down was shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing and the Richard Jefferies Society Literary Prize, and won the 2022 Edward Stanford Travel Writing Award for Narrative Travel Book of the Year. Her most recent book, Ghost on the Farm, continues her exploration of landscape, memory and belonging, weaving together personal history with the layered stories held within the land, and was shortlisted for the 2025 Richard Jefferies Society Literary Prize.
Known for her lyrical yet grounded writing, Nicola brings together natural history, personal experience, and cultural memory to tell stories rooted in close observation and deep affection for the land. Her work encourages us to look beyond the surface of familiar places, recognising the layers of history, ecology and human connection that continue to shape the countryside around us.
Raine Geoghegan
Editor of KIN: An Anthology of Poetry, Story and Art by Women from Romani, Traveller and Nomadic Communities and Author of The Talking Stick: O Pookering Kosh
Raine Geoghegan, MA, is a Welsh-born poet, prose writer and playwright of Romany, Welsh and Irish heritage. A Forward Prize, twice Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, her work explores identity, heritage, language and belonging, drawing deeply on lived experience to bring visibility to Romany culture and history. Her writing challenges long-standing stereotypes surrounding Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities, while reflecting on family, memory and the enduring relationship between people and place.
Her work has been widely published in journals and anthologies, including Poetry Ireland Review, Travellers’ Times, Under the Radar, SkyLight47, The Clearing and Fly on the Wall. Her essay ‘It’s Hopping Time’ appears in Gifts of Gravity and Light (Hodder & Stoughton, 2021). She has published three pamphlets with Hedgehog Poetry Press — Apple Water: Povel Panni, They Lit Fires: Lenti Hatch O Yog and The Stone Sleep — with Apple Water selected for the Poetry Book Society Spring 2019 list. Her full collection The Talking Stick: O Pookering Kosh was published by Salmon Poetry in 2022, and she is also the editor of the anthology Kin.
Alongside her writing, Raine is the founder of Writing as Sanctuary, a transformative writing programme exploring creativity as a tool for personal development and ancestral healing. Through both her creative and facilitation work, she invites others to consider how storytelling can become an act of reclamation, belonging and cultural resilience.
Sophie Pierce
Author of Rock Idols: a guide to Dartmoor in 28 Tors
Sophie Pearce is a writer, broadcaster and photographer based on Dartmoor, with a passionate interest in our relationship with wild places and the ways landscape shapes memory, identity and belonging. Her work is rooted in close attention to the natural world, exploring how time, grief and place become intertwined within the landscapes we inhabit.
Her memoir, The Green Hill: Letters to a Son, reflects on the sudden and unexpected death of her son Felix, and how her relationship with the natural world changed in the light of this devastating event. The paperback edition was published by Wilton Square Books in April 2026.
Her latest book, Rock Idols, created with her husband, artist Alex Murdin, is a hymn to Dartmoor’s mysterious tors. Through stunning original drawings, personal stories and practical insight, it explores the moor’s archaeology, folklore and geology, telling the story of Dartmoor through the lens of its ancient stones and reflecting on the enduring hold these wild places have over our imagination. She is also the co-author, with Matt Newbury, of five wild swimming guides.
Sophie is co-founder of the Dartmoor Tors Festival, which first took place in May 2025. For many years, she worked as a reporter and producer for BBC News in the South West. Through her writing, she invites readers to encounter wild landscapes not only as places of beauty and history, but as spaces of reflection, resilience and connection.
Rebecca Beattie
Author of
Dr Rebecca Beattie is a writer, Wiccan priestess and scholar whose work explores the intersections of landscape, folklore, ecology and lived spirituality. She grew up on Dartmoor, where an early immersion in wild landscapes fostered a lifelong fascination with nature, story and the unseen threads that connect them. Her writing draws on both personal experience and deep study, weaving together ancient traditions, seasonal practice and literary insight.
Rebecca holds an MA in Modern and Contemporary Literature from Birkbeck, University of London, and a PhD in Creative Writing from Middlesex University, where her research focused on the nature mystic and author Mary Webb. Alongside her academic work, she has spent over two decades studying and practising witchcraft, including fifteen years within a Gardnerian Wiccan coven, and training at the College of Psychic Studies.
Her books include The Wheel of the Year, a guide to reconnecting with the rhythms of the seasons; A Way Through the Woods, which explores walking, landscape and personal transformation; and her forthcoming The Season of Frost and Fire: A Witch’s Winter in 13 Rituals. She is also the author of Nature Mystics, which traces the writers who helped shape modern Pagan thought. Her fiction, including The Lychway, is deeply rooted in landscape and folklore. Through all her work, Rebecca invites readers to rediscover enchantment in the natural world and to explore how ancient beliefs continue to shape our sense of place, belonging and connection.
Introducing our Salon Host — Victoria Bennett
That is me! Founder of Wild Women Press and curator of the Wild Women Writers’ Salons. Host
I am an award-winning disabled writer, carer, and mother. A firm believer in everyone’s right to write their own story, I have dedicated much of my working life to nurturing spaces where people can do just that, founding Wild Women Press in 1999. I have curated and hosted the Wild Women Writers’ Salons since 2023, bringing together writers and readers from around the world to explore connection, care, and the wild edges of experience.
My latest book, The Apothecary By The Sea: A Year in an Orkney Garden, was released on 30th April by Elliot and Thompson.
‘… an enchanting and enriching mix of memoir, ecology and magic, and a heartfelt antidote to a fast-changing and often troubling world …’ - Annie Worsley, author of Windswept
‘… a gift for times of transition, it is a companion for those navigating thresholds in life, when old maps no longer serve and new ways of being are quietly forming …’ - JC Niala, author of This New Eden
My debut memoir, All My Wild Mothers: Motherhood, Loss, and an Apothecary Garden, was a 2024 Nautilus Book Award Winner (memoir)
‘… a beautiful, raw, meditative book on grief, mothering, and the wild both within and without… ’ (Kerri ni Dochartaigh)
‘… a haven in a cynical world — exactly the kind of book we need right now …’ (Catherine Simpson)
WHAT ARE THE WILD WOMEN WRITERS’ SALONS?
Each salon is carefully curated, with considerable thought given to pairing authors with their writing. This pairing allows us to bring something new to the conversation — a space where all the books intersect and begin to tell an additional story. All participants, including myself, read and responded to the selected books, engaging with them as readers, writers, and creative peers.
This is more than a literary panel — it’s a community. We’re creating a welcoming and inspiring space to gather, engage and inspire positive change. In this collaborative, creative space, the audience and authors come together to delve deeper into the words and what it means to write them.
How do the salons work? What is Pay What You Can?
I am a disabled author and carer, as well as the founder of Wild Women Press and the Wild Women Writers’ Salons. I am passionate about creating positive change, and I believe words can help us do this.
That is why I share mine, and why I have dedicated over half my life to creating spaces where others can share theirs. When we tell our stories and listen to others, we connect. In this ever-divisive world, it feels so important to do.
I run the salons from my home. This is not an organisation or a business, but it does need an income to survive, as do I.
No personal profit is made from the salons — all revenue generated from ticket sales and subscriptions is reinvested in the project to support the authors, those working behind the scenes, and to make the project possible in the future.
This year, I have been fortunate to receive a small grant from Creative Scotland for research and development, which will help me expand access and support the authors’ time and commitment, as well as my own.
However, it doesn’t cover the full cost of the programme, or the hours it takes to make it happen. That is where your support comes in.
The salons are offered as Pay-What-You-Can. As a disabled carer and a member of a low-income household, I know the reality of economic access. I am very aware that there are times in life when we can’t find those funds, no matter how much we want to. Please know that whatever you can pay is gratefully received and you are welcome.
If you can pay more, then having suggested price points as guides may be helpful.
A minimum ticket donation of £5 is suggested. This won’t cover the salon or the work, but it goes some way.
£8, £16, and £24 are realistic price points acknowledging the time, creativity, and energy generously given by our guest authors and all those involved in making the salons happen.
BUT please do not feel you cannot attend if you cannot meet these price points. If this is you right now, please know that you are still very much welcome.
All and any donations and paid subscriptions are vital to this space’s ecosystem
So let’s get the conversation started…
Want to read the books?
The salons are carefully curated to bring authors together to discuss their work, explore connections, and engage in creative practice. All the books can be read as stand-alone, but something magical happens when you read them together and carry on that conversation between the works.
Did you know that you can find all the authors’ books and recommended reads on our Bookshop page, or you can buy the author’s books directly (deliverable worldwide) from Sam Read Booksellers?
Why Upgrade to Paid?
Be part of the growing Wild Women Writers’ community
The salons are entirely unfunded. All paid subscriptions support the work behind the scenes to make the Wild Women Writers’ Salons and the newsletter happen. In exchange for your support, you get:
access to all previous newsletters
access to recordings of the full programme of salons;
additional interviews with our guest authors on their writing and inspirations;
additional reading recommendations from our guest authors;
bespoke writing prompts from our guest authors;
occasional additional writing opportunities and courses;
The chance to be part of a nurturing community of creative practice!
Please consider upgrading to a paid subscription today.
Writing Wild (Wild Women Writers’ Salons) is a reader-supported publication. By subscribing, you support the behind-the-scenes work that makes this project possible. Thank you.
Notice & Reminder
We will be taking a break for July, so why not take the opportunity to catch up on any of the salons you have missed so far — take out a paid subscription and enjoy any of the salons from our full catalogue —
All you need to do is upgrade to a paid subscription, have a look through the previous issues of Writing Wild, and click on the links. You will also get access to writing prompts, reading recommendations and interviews with our guest authors!
Do remember to book on and join us for Salon 26: Ancient Ground — Writing from the bones of the land: history, home, and belonging.
Tickets on sale now — book your place now and join us!
Until then, go gently, keep connecting, and stay wild!
Victoria x
Self-Care Snippet
“Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace.” — May Sarton
