If Women Rose Rooted : A Journey to Authenticity and Belonging

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What I would have liked to have seen in this book is a pronunciation guide for the Gaelic names and words (impossible combinations of letters!) and an appendix with the names and brief identities of the mythological characters and places. There are footnotes for sources which is helpful. My husband David Knowles and I founded literary publisher Two Ravens Press (now under new ownership) in 2006, and in 2012 launched EarthLines Magazine, a full-colour print publication for writing about nature, place and the environment. Mind-blowing. An anthem for all we could be ... I sincerely hope every woman who can read has the time and space to read it.’ Manda Scott, author of Boudica and A Treachery of Spies It is a Call to Life – a full, authentic life. It is a Call to rise from the half-sleep of our existence, and take up our part in the great unfolding of the world. To become a Voice of the Wells. We must answer the Call, or forever be lost in the Wasteland. For many women, that Call occurs at midlife. Dante expressed it perfectly, in the opening lines of The Divine Comedy: ‘Midway upon the journey of my life I found myself in a dark wood, where the right way was lost.’ Most women experience major change in these middle years: physical change or professional; social or psychological; changes in our family and our relationships. Our children leave home. We are overtaken by disillusionment and dissatisfaction. We find ourselves unhappy in our jobs, in our marriages. We develop physical illnesses, anxiety or depression. Rage and grief threaten to overwhelm us. We begin to contemplate our own mortality. We question who we are, who we might have been, who we might yet become. We question our spiritual values and our material values. We begin to wonder what we are doing with our lives, what meaning we might find. We open our eyes a little wider, and take in the world beyond ourselves. For the first time, we see the Wasteland for what it is.” In general I enjoyed this - it's all about connecting with the Earth and connecting with Celtic heritage. It interlinks personal stories, Celtic myths, and meetings with other like-minded people. It's kinda like Women who Run with the wolves - so if you like that book, you'll like this one too.

As well as writing five books of fiction and nonfiction, including the bestselling If Women Rose Rooted and her latest, Hagitude, her writing has appeared in anthologies, collections and in several international media outlets – among them the Guardian, the Irish Times, and the Scotsman. Her books have been translated into several languages, and she has been interviewed by the BBC, US public radio and other broadcasters on her areas of expertise. Her awards include the Roger Deakin Award, and a Creative Scotland Writer’s Award. Her next book, Wise Women: Myths and folklore in celebration of older women will be published by Virago in 2024.Find out about new live online courses, or join me in my regular sessions in The Bone Cave: interactive online gatherings to reclaim the mythic feminine. This book marks the Rites of Passage we transition through in life and explores how these experiences may be painful and unauthentic for individuals in our contemporary culture.

It is heartening to read a progressive view of the women's movement and one that links with care for the Earth and all living beings. This book is very well recommended." — GreenSpirit magazineOur servers are getting hit pretty hard right now. To continue shopping, enter the characters as they are shown It was one of those rare times when I felt as if by some means of synchronicity, the right book reached me at exactly the right moment." — Dreaming in Stitches

The book depicts one way of femininity – connected with nature, stories and heritage – and finds multiple examples of women that thrived when following this path. But these multiple examples still adds up to like 10-15 women in total. This makes me think about all the other aspects and ways of being that were completely ignored. It is heartening to read a progressive view of the women’s movement and one that links with care for the Earth and all living beings. This book is very well recommended.’ GREENSPIRIT MAGAZINE Better still, now I have words to explain why I have felt more at home, more connected to the world in this land far from the land of my birth. Why moving to England from far off Kansas felt like moving home again. She dreams of a night sky from which the stars have not fled in horror, and of wild-pawed, stinking foxes yapping in a moonlit wood. She can see it; she can almost taste it.” The stories (within stories within stories) spiral at the same rate as your soul and seep into your heart and your dreams. Please read this book!

And if we rise up rooted, like trees . . . well then, women might indeed save not only ourselves, but the world. A life-changing journey from the wasteland of modern society to a place of nourishment and connection. At once a scholar’s homage to The Iliad and startlingly original work of art by an incredibly talented new novelist….A book I could not put down.” Because enchantment, by my definition, has nothing to do with fantasy, or escapism, or magical thinking: it is founded on a vivid sense of belongingness to a rich and many-layered world; a profound and whole-hearted participation in the adventure of life. The enchanted life presented here is one which is intuitive, embraces wonder and fully engages the creative imagination – but it is also deeply embodied, ecological, grounded in place and community. It flourishes on work that has heart and meaning; it respects the instinctive knowledge and playfulness of children. It understands the myths we live by; thrives on poetry, song and dance. It loves the folkloric, the handcrafted, the practice of traditional skills. It respects wild things, recognises the wisdom of the crow, seeks out the medicine of plants. It rummages and roots on the wild edges, but comes home to an enchanted home and garden. It is engaged with the small, the local, the ethical; enchanted living is slow living.” I felt no love for this world, no sense of belonging. I felt separate from it, closed in, claustrophobic. Some days, walking through identical grey suburban streets to school, I felt as if I were being buried alive.”