It’s the kind of summer morning when even the breeze is warm on your skin. The sky is clear, its only blemish the faint scar of flight lines. The slow traffic of the city centre feels further away than it is – replaced by the hum of bees and chirrup of busy birds.
Karen Powell is a novelist living in the historic city of York, and in this episode, we’ve been invited into her garden. Our conversation, easy as the breeze brushing through the tall grasses, meanders around the space, exploring different plants, memories, and what a garden can be. A repository of the past, an ode to someone loved, and a place to cultivate the future.
In this case, Karen’s garden is also a true haven. I realise, during our conversation, that I had something wrong. I had been imagining the power of feeling attached to the kind of grand, impressive places we find ourselves drawn to; something inexplicable in their shape, smell and bedrock. I had imagined these kinds of connections to be the strongest. But here, listening to Karen, I realise that belonging to a place isn’t just about wild or pre-existing spaces that you discover or return to. Sometimes you can create a space: you can make it your own, and make it special to you. There’s a very real - though different kind of liberation in that. What joy to pick a patch of turf and say: Yes, this. Over time, this will give me what I need. And then to watch your vision grow.
Karen Powell grew up in Rochester, Kent. She left school at sixteen but returned to education in her mid-twenties. The River Within was published by Europa Editions in 2020, and an early version of the novel won a Northern Writers’ Award in 2017. Fifteen Wild Decembers, a fictional reimagining of the life of Emily Brontë, was published in 2023. It was shortlisted for the inaugural Nero Book Award for Fiction and named a Sunday Times Best Historical Fiction Book for 2023.
I hope you enjoy this gentle and inspiring tour of Karen’s beloved garden. Listen out for the shriek of swifts overhead - their sound is joyous, and bring a tingling anticipation of summer days to come.
With love,
Kathryn x
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