In Conversation with Caro Giles

And let me tell you, it's as much about the 'other' life of the carer – the creative, writerly one – as it is about our experiences of providing care for our loved ones.

Hi friends,

I am absolutely thrilled to bring you this beautiful conversation with Caro Giles who writes

Unschooled

here on

Substack

. We recorded it on Zoom earlier in the week and if nothing more, I can say with confidence that Caro’s lighting is way better than mine. Going to have to up my Zoom-game…

Caro’s memoir, Twelve Moons: A Year Under a Shared Sky, is out in hardback now though audiobook is always my preferred option when it’s memoir and the writer is reading. Caro’s is an emotional and compelling listen.

Named Countryfile’s New Nature Writer of the Year 2021, she now has a monthly column in Psychologies Magazine and has words in Grazia. Caro writes evocatively about Northumberland – the coastal part of the north east of England she now lives in – and her Instagram is bursting with images of the ever-changing sky, windswept beaches and glimmering rockpools. However, the beauty of the landscape often serves as backdrop and temporary salve to the challenges she experiences. It’s a life lived not just on the coast, but on the margins; the edges.

Caro is a single parent carer to four daughters, some of whom have complex needs and require to be educated at home. She has become increasingly outspoken about the issues her family has faced as she battles to secure appropriate educational provision for her daughters, as much informed by her personal experience as her background in teaching. She is creating a beautiful community on her Substack as a means to give voice to these challenges and share stories with others facing similar bureaucratic frustrations.

‘Frustrations’ feels an inadequate word in this case, for I know the impact is far greater.

We talk about what this means for them all, as well as how her caring impacts her creative practice. Caro is a fellow multi-passionate (thanks, I think, due to

Claire Venus

,

Sarah Shotts

and

Luisa Skinner

for this definition of personhood that made me feel seen). and we discuss how mothering and caring informs our various interests, creating an important set of limitations without which our creative selves might never have flourished.

Although I do not class myself as a parent carer, some of the overlaps in our experiences of caring more generally made me so keen to find a way for us to collaborate for this series.

Images courtesy of Caro Giles

As well as all of that, we – of course – discussed nature writing and the negative chatter that can stymie women particularly when writing themselves and their experiences into the landscape. I loved hearing more about how she wrote the book and the ways she succeeded in representing those close to her in a way that felt truthful yet remained respectful of their right to privacy.

Twelve Moons will be released in paperback early next year, but I urge you not to tarry; wrap your ears around this sensitive, raw and poetic exploration of motherhood, caring, divorce and identity played out against the backdrop of the wild Northumberland coast now.

Well, not just yet. First, get yourself a cup of something and settle in for half an hour with us…