Asking the help of ghosts
Alice Albinia

  The beginning of each book is often so distant from its end. I began my first book thinking I was writing a history of the river Indus. But when I eventually arrived in Pakistan, the Indus river’s ecological present burst onto its pages. Water, the lack of it—and the impossibility of sharing it equitably—was […]

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Alice Albinia

Welcome to Solarpunk
Shireen Tawil

  “UNLESS someone like you  cares a whole awful lot,  nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” -The Once-ler   Rarely do words from children’s books sear themselves into my memory like this warning by the faceless Once-ler in Dr. Seuss’s classic The Lorax. The once-destructive (now regretful) protagonist issues this warning to the […]

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Shireen Tawil

Finding the Positive
Kathryn Nelson

  I had to stop watching the mainstream news. I turned off my notifications, stopped doom-scrolling. I closed my eyes, put my fingers in my ears. My heart couldn’t take any more, it was breaking with shame and anger, guilt and despair at what my fellow humans are doing to each other, to our planet. […]

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Kathryn Nelson

There is a plan
Jessica Townsend

  It has taken 3.5 billion years of life for this planet to evolve into its present beauty and complexity. Yet it has only taken my lifetime for half the carbon emissions now present to appear in the atmosphere. Today everything alive on our miraculous Earth is under threat. Yet there is a plan, which […]

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Jessica Townsend

It’s Pandora’s Box
Venetia Welby

  Writers Rebel is delighted to be able to publish an exclusive excerpt from Venetia Welby’s new novel, Dreamtime.   ‘So, where is he then, your dad?’ Carter’s hand is creeping towards her bony hip. Very illicit. ‘Won’t he come to your Family Week?’ Sol does not answer. She thinks about how Carter sold his […]

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Venetia Welby

Mud-Luscious and Puddle-Wonderful
Lucy Jones

  Writers Rebel is thrilled to publish an excerpt from Lucy Jones’ book, Losing Eden.   In 2007, the words ‘acorn’ and ‘buttercup’ were taken out of the Oxford Children’s Dictionary, in favour of words like ‘broadband’ and ‘cut and paste’ to reflect changing usage of the language. ‘Hamster’, ‘heron’, ‘herring’, ‘king sher’, ‘lark’, ‘leopard’, […]

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Lucy Jones

Shapes of our fear
Tessa Hadley

  Amitav Ghosh’s book The Great Derangement was published in 2016. It’s a moving polemic, accusing contemporary novelists of failing to find the right forms, or the necessary urgency, in addressing the climate crisis. And it’s a crucial intervention. Which novelist hasn’t been anguished by this widening gap, like a chasm opening under our own […]

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Tessa Hadley

How to Tell a Story to Save the World 5
Toby Litt

  In this final couple of chapters, we find some signs of resistance to the dominance of Heroism in two of the most successful films of all time.   AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR 2018 and AVENGERS: ENDGAME 2019   Unlikely as it may seem, the two recent Avengers films give signs of possible hope. (I’m going […]

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Toby Litt

They have given us no reason to trust them
Emma Garnett

  This is an edited version of a speech given to XR Scientists at the Science Museum on 29th August 2021 My name is Emma. I am a Research Fellow at Cambridge University looking at behaviour change and sustainable diets. But I’m not here to talk about that. Instead, I’ve been asked to speak today […]

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Emma Garnett

How to Tell a Story to Save the World 4
Toby Litt

  This time we look at the most recent of the screenwriting gurus, John Yorke, and then take a hard look at the transformations of World War Z. What happens when a novel without a hero goes through four of the scriptwriting machines?   INTO THE WOODS: HOW STORIES WORK AND WHY WE TELL THEM […]

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Toby Litt

What I said to the jury who found me guilty
Zappi Taylor

  On 22nd July, three rebels were convicted of taking action at the Brazilian Embassy against the ecocidal and genocidal regime of President Bolsonaro. Possible sentences range from a community order to 18 months in prison.  This is the address given by one of the rebels, 24 year old Zappi Taylor, to the jury.   […]

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Zappi Taylor

Read: Iggy Fox’s Defence Statement
Iggy Fox

  The wildlife biologist and campaigner Raphael Coleman, known in XR as Iggy Fox, joined Extinction Rebellion as part of the Media and Messaging team in 2018. He was active in XR Youth, a beloved member of the Snowflakes affinity group, and the force behind XR’s iconic Paint The Streets campaigns. When still a zoology student, he […]

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Iggy Fox

Support the Tufton 3
Jessica Townsend

A Writers Rebel Campaign On Trial for Causing Criminal Damage to the Home of Dark Money   Extinction Rebellion co-founder Clare Farrell, Professor Rupert Read and I are in the heart of London to perform an act of civil disobedience. Later, we expect to be arrested. I don’t know about the others, but I’m nervous. […]

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Jessica Townsend