ExtInked Ecological Art and Tattoos at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

Just got home from an afternoon of storytelling at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, with the lovely and talented Claire Druett.  We told stories about trees and conservation to a bunch of clued-in under-eights and their parents.  After the session, a dad came up to us and asked us if we knew Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree, telling us it was his favourite book growing up and that if anyone could get through it with dry eyes, they had no heart.  I got a bit teary just seeing the passion with which he talked about it.  The books we read as children matter.

In between story sessions, I like to take a wander through the gallery space outside the room we tell in.  It always has fascinating exhibits created at the intersection of nature and culture.  ExtInked is the art project currently on show until July 29th.  Ultimate Holding Company of Manchester worked with conservation organizations to identify 100 of Britain’s endangered species.  Pen and ink drawings were then done of these species by artist Jai Redman.  After a local exhibition, people were invited to apply to become volunteer ambassadors for one of the species and have it’s image tattooed on their body.  Over 500 people applied.

The drawings are lovely but what captivated me was the slide show of photos of people getting tattooed and a series of portraits of these ambassadors.  An incredibly diverse range of people took part and the act of being tattooed, by tattoo artists Ink vs Steel,  appeared to have the solemnity of a ritual of initiation.  I want to talk to these ambassadors.  I want to know what led them to want to have a species image inked into their flesh and how this has changed their lives.

To view the images and portraits, go to the ExtInked website.

Talking Tree Storytellers can be found at 2pm on the third Sunday of each month at the John Hope Gateway Building of the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh.  For a list of exhibitions at the RBGE, click here.

Claire Druett’s storytelling page.

Alette J Willis’s storytelling page.

EarthLines Magazine

I’ve always been a fan of Orion Magazine, but now that I’m living on the other side of The Pond, I have noticed that it is a little North America-centric.  So I was happy to discover that Scottish-based publisher Two Ravens Press have started a similarly literary environmental magazine.  I received my copy a few weeks ago and I’ve been slowly working my way through it–slowly because I want to savour and think about each piece I read.  I was delighted to discover that one of their sections is even entitled “Re-storying the Earth”.  I’ve enjoyed issue #1 so much that I’ve asked for a subscription for my birthday.

Earthlines Magazine Home Page.

My guest post on “green” book clubs for their blog.

Orion Magazine.

Happy World Book Day (UK) Everyone!

Here in the UK, World Book Day is being celebrated on the 1st of March.  The rest of the world will be celebrating it on April 23rd, the date that UNESCO selected as it is the anniversary of the death of Cervantes and the birth and death of Shakespeare.  I will be marking World Book Day by visiting a couple of Edinburgh schools, reading from my new book and sharing my love of reading and writing with local students.

Recently, I’ve been rereading some of my favourite books from my own childhood and reflecting on just how important they were to me growing up.  It’s no exaggeration to say that the books I read back then helped to shape who I am now.  The first book I reread was The Keeper of the Isis Light, by Monica Hughes, which I recently picked up at Helios Fountain and was thrilled to discover had been published here in the UK by my own publisher Floris Books.  I hadn’t remembered the details of the story, but the image of Olwen Pendennisl had lurked in my subconscious for decades until it snuck out into a YA novel I was writing a couple of years ago.

The second book I revisited was Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonsong. Sadly Anne McCaffrey passed away this past November.  The books she wrote for young readers taught me to believe in possibilities.  Dragonsong was my first introduction to girl power.

The third book I just happened upon in a charity shop before Christmas.  I didn’t remember the title, or any of the story, but something about the book as an object, something about the picture on the cover gave me such a strong feeling I bought it on the spot and brought it to Inverness for my Christmas reading.  It was the first English edition of Astrid Lindgren’s The Brothers Lionheart.  I was not disappointed.  There was a reason that book left such a lasting impression, beautiful and disturbing in just the right way.

On March 1st I will be celebrating these three books along with all the others that have a special place on my bookshelf and in my life.