Anouchka Grose gives her support to the Tufton Three in this short moving film. A writer and clinical psychoanalyst, she herself spoke at the Tufton event in September 2020. […]
Anouchka Grose supports the Tufton 3Anouchka Grose
Asking the help of ghostsAlice 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 […]
Ordinary MagicRym Kechacha
It’s February and my husband and I move into our new house in Norwich, where we moved eighteen months ago from London seeking slower, wider skies. Before the paint’s dry or the boxes unpacked we’re out in the garden. We’ve longed for a patch of green to call our own for years. Neighbours tell […]
Jonathon Porritt Supports the Tufton 3Jonathon Porritt
Writers Rebel have just now received this wonderful video from Jonathon Porritt, expressing his support for the Tufton 3 whose case will be heard on the 28th October. […]
Finding the PositiveKathryn 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. […]
There is a planJessica 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 […]
It’s Pandora’s BoxVenetia 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 […]
Mud-Luscious and Puddle-WonderfulLucy 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’, […]
How to Tell a Story to Save the World 5Toby 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 […]
They have given us no reason to trust themEmma 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 […]
How to Tell a Story to Save the World 4Toby 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 […]
Q&A with Philip Hoare
Chloe Aridjis interviews Philip Hoare about his new book, Albert and the Whale (Fourth Estate) Starting with the monkey in the prologue you brilliantly set up the myriad ways in which our relationship to other species has been defined (artistic, scientific, utilitarian). Would you say much has changed over the centuries or was it […]
Read: Iggy Fox’s Defence StatementIggy 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 […]
Support the Tufton 3Jessica 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. […]
#PaintTheLand Launch
Writers Rebel’s Paint the Land project was launched with the help of Booker prize-winning writer Ben Okri, artist-activists Ackroyd & Harvey, Capital Choir, Damon Albarn and countless dedicated volunteers. Okri’s message to world governments, “Can’t you hear the future weeping? Our love must save the world” was grown on an 16x4m carpet of living grass […]
Our Love Must Save The World Ben Okri
This speech was given by Ben Okri at Writers Rebel’s Paint The Land launch event on Friday 25th June, 2021. When Writers Rebel asked me to come up with a few words that could speak to a world on the verge of environmental catastrophe, I had a minor crisis of my own. The facts […]
Parents for a Future – how do we broaden the movement?Rupert Read
Walking along the street the other day, I overheard a fragment of a conversation. A mother with a pushchair was saying confidently said to her friend, ‘You know me, I’d do anything to protect my kids’. It’s a variation of a phrase I have often heard but, just recently, the urge to interrupt and […]
Writing on the landJames Flint
John Richard Granville Stevens — Granville to everyone who knows him — is standing in the field behind his farmhouse, showing me his roots. While he’s doing this, I’m thinking about Franz Kafka’s short story “In the Penal Settlement”. Farmer Granville Stevens standing in one of his cover crops. [Photo credit: JAMES FLINT] […]
Watch: Interview with Amazon Defender Alexandra NarváezBeth Pitts
Beth Pitts interviews Alexandra Narváez, an indigenous Kofán defender from Ecuador’s northern Amazon region. Alexandra’s community of Sinangoe is famous for winning a historic legal battle against gold mining in 2018, which protected 79,000 acres of mega-biodiverse primary rainforest and the headwaters of one of Ecuador’s most important rivers. As the first woman to […]
Ver: Entrevista con Defensora Amazónica Alexandra NarváezBeth Pitts
Beth Pitts entrevista a Alexandra Narváez, una defensora indígena Kofán de la región norte de la Amazonía del Ecuador. La comunidad de Alexandra, Sinangoe, es famosa por ganar una batalla legal histórica contra la minería de oro en 2018, que protegió mas que 30.000 hectáreas de selva primaria megabiodiverso y las cabeceras de […]
Who Breaks a Butterfly Upon a Wheel?Terry Tempest Williams and Eva Aridjis
Terry Tempest Williams and Eva Aridjis took part in Writers Rebels’ Insectageddon event on May 24th 2021, at which they both spoke piercingly about the fate of the Monarch Butterfly. In this video, we share Terry’s contribution. Known for her impassioned and lyrical prose, Terry Tempest Williams is the author of the environmental literature […]