Category Archives: My own

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While we bomb and argue the planet waits

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“There is necessary wisdom in the give-and-take of nature – its quiet agreement and search for balance. There is an extraordinary generosity.” Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest

There is something so persevering and calm about trees.

As we bomb, they grow. As we pollute, they grow. As we burn, they grow. As we flood, they grow. As we cause the seasons to slip and change, they grow.

They are the constant, quiet witnesses to our chaos, adapting through their roots to our calamities. Thankfully they seem determined to hold on, steady as pillars while we panic.

Perhaps they are smiling to themselves now, for surely they can see us digging and planting and praying at their feet – praying that they will not abandon us, praying that they will come back in their multitudes to clean our air, praying that they will continue to give us shelter as they have always done, praying that we are not too late to turn to them for help … again.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023

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The meaning of travel and adventure

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“She travelled on the edge of the edge itself.” Ethel Crowley about Dervla Murphy

Today I heard a mountaineer and expedition leader being asked if travel and adventure were still possible. He replied that they were, and the interviewer then went into detail about the adventurer’s various trips. I was impressed, but not in the way I am when I read of Dervla Murphy’s exploits.

Ethel Crowley is the editor of the recently published book Life at Full Tilt – The Selected Writings of Dervla Murphy. I have almost finished the book and my mind is out on stalks. How did Dervla Murphy survive her travels?

This is not to say that travel has to involve terrifying ascents, or being mugged by children in Albania, but it does seem to be part of what extreme travellers do, and Dervla Murphy was one of those. Truly extraordinary resilience, as well as such good ‘being there in the moment’ and ‘looking at others’ skills. She did the extraoardinary and the ordinary, from Bradford to faraway Siberia, and met the locals wherever she could, showing us herself and others, so we could think about ourselves.

That to me is real travel. It doesn’t have to be Everest. All you have to do is step outside your front door and start really looking. Life is the big adventure.

(The photograph above is of part of the press release that Eland Publishing sent me with the copy of Life at Full Tilt.)

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023

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The daunting process of finding an agent

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This is the time of year when family used to wearily supply me with another copy of the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook, which I would then hunt through looking for likely targets. I’d read up on each agent’s specific requirements, and then measure out the ingredients to send to them. Sadly for me nothing baked into anything. So I gave up.

Then today I listened once more to writers discussing submissions, and I saw suddenly that the clue is in the word ‘submission’. That’s what it feels like after aching hours of drafting and tweaking, and rearranging according to each agent’s rules, especially if there’s not even a peep in response.

Anyway, while I sit here bleating like a sheep stuck on the wrong side of a fence, I think sometimes of J K Rowling. She created a whole world, then submitted it again and again, until finally ‘kapow‘! She succeeded because she did not give up. So, even if I can’t create a world as magnificent as hers, I can at least work on the not giving up … for now.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023