Laura Toms, Author at Writers Rebel

HERE WE GO AGAINBrianna Craft

Laura Toms — Mon, 16 Dec 2024 15:10:42 +0000

This blog is an excerpt from Everything That Rises: A Climate Change Memoir, following the first election of President Trump in 2016. I envied those with the ability to speak freely, effortlessly filling journalist’s answers to questions about the Paris Agreement with noise. How were they not scared? It didn’t matter how much [...]

The post HERE WE GO AGAINBrianna Craft appeared first on Writers Rebel.

Reclaiming DartmoorWyl Mnmuir

Laura Toms — Fri, 15 Nov 2024 09:25:13 +0000

The walk had started cheerfully enough. We gathered in the village square, formed a polite circle and introduced ourselves. Many of those who turned up already knew one another, veterans of the Right to Roam campaign. Many had been involved in organizing the protests that had taken place earlier in the year against [...]

The post Reclaiming DartmoorWyl Mnmuir appeared first on Writers Rebel.

My Damascus MomentNick O'Neill

Laura Toms — Fri, 11 Oct 2024 14:21:49 +0000

The shrieking of the young woman covered in fake blood had a visceral effect on me. She’s the same age as my daughter I thought, as the TV presenter thrust her microphone into my face. Like spectators in a Roman amphitheatre watching cowering Christians, the crowd of protesters pushed forward expectantly as if sensing [...]

The post My Damascus MomentNick O'Neill appeared first on Writers Rebel.

Free Paul WatsonForfattere ser Grønt

Laura Toms — Fri, 06 Sep 2024 10:24:29 +0000

On 21 July, the whale activist Paul Watson docked to refuel his ship, the John Paul DeJoira, in Nuuk, Greenland. And in response, Denmark – of which Greenland is a part – did something morally incomprehensible. It ordered police to arrest and detain him. What was his crime? Watson, the former Greenpeace activist [...]

The post Free Paul WatsonForfattere ser Grønt appeared first on Writers Rebel.

Air as Sweet as Ice CreamShahnaz Habib

Laura Toms — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 11:51:57 +0000

“You have to be very lucky to see a snake,” Sam said to me. “They are shy.” I was pulling on long gum boots to wear for a hike in the forest. Sam is the resident guide at a small guesthouse, set deep inside a forest in Wayanad, in the northern hills of Kerala. [...]

The post Air as Sweet as Ice CreamShahnaz Habib appeared first on Writers Rebel.

Briefly Very BeautifulRoz Dineen

Laura Toms — Thu, 25 Jul 2024 07:01:00 +0000

She knew that there were other parents in the streets nearby silently planning their terror runs, just like her, just then. This was reassuring, like a superstition, or a community. Hot magic-blue night. She said, ‘Whisper.’ ‘What if I’m scared?’ whispered Vito, who was eight. ‘Of the insects, maybe?’ ‘There is nothing to be [...]

The post Briefly Very BeautifulRoz Dineen appeared first on Writers Rebel.

Q&A with Roz DineenLiz Jensen and Natasha Walter

Laura Toms — Thu, 25 Jul 2024 07:00:56 +0000

Briefly Very Beautiful, set in the near future in a country that is never named as Britain, involves some bold world-building choices. Which of these were the easiest to make, and which the hardest? Those choices were quite straightforward. I was drawing logical conclusions from existing conditions. If this, then this. If fire, then [...]

The post Q&A with Roz DineenLiz Jensen and Natasha Walter appeared first on Writers Rebel.

Paddling PoolClaire Carroll

Laura Toms — Thu, 25 Jul 2024 07:00:18 +0000

It’s not unethical to buy one, despite what some people say. Sure, there’s too much plastic in the world, too much material, too many petrochemicals, but no one has told us definitively that it’s not OK. They would have banned them, anyway. It’s completely fine if you want to walk to the hypermarket to [...]

The post Paddling PoolClaire Carroll appeared first on Writers Rebel.

The Pressure ZoneDavina Quinlivan

Laura Toms — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 07:00:20 +0000

All these images, I cannot shelter from, as one might shelter from the rain. They fall and fall, and fall and fall, in perfect, perfect liquid lines. Things go, they burn out brightly, they reach the surface of my mind. The weather, the people, at the edges, bordering what goes on between and behind. [...]

The post The Pressure ZoneDavina Quinlivan appeared first on Writers Rebel.