Why Women Grow

Jamaica Kincaid on gardening as writing

Bonus episode: Writer and novelist Jamaica Kincaid redefined garden writing with books such as My Garden (Book) and Among Flowers, as well as changing perspectives on the post-colonial experience through titles such as A Small Place and Lucy. We meet the Antiguan-American author in the halls of Charleston House, Sussex, where Bloomsbury Group artists Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant made art, a home, and a life-long relationship. In a quiet moment away from Charleston’s Festival of the Garden, Jamaica tells us about how gardening sits alongside her writing practice, how she converses with her plants and what they teach her about mortality. 
This podcast is inspired by my book, Why Women Grow: Stories of Soil, Sisterhood and Survival, which is available from all good book shops.  
The Why Women Grow podcast is produced by Holly Fisher, and theme music is by Maria Chiara Argiro. Thank you to Canongate and Uprooting, by Marchelle Farrell, for supporting this episode. We are grateful to our hosts at Charleston House and to Hollie Fernandes for her beautiful photographs of Jamaica Kincaid taken there.

'These rich and intimate conversations offer new perspectives on our interactions with nature' - The FT

I’m Alice Vincent and I’ve been on a quest to understand why women go to ground when there’s so much else to do. In Why Women Grow I have inspiring conversations with designers, chefs, entrepreneurs, and writers in their gardens.

This isn’t a podcast about gardening. Sure there’s bit of that but we discuss resistance, motherhood, spirituality, saving the planet and much more. These stories made me think differently about what it is to grow, and I think they’ll do that for you, too.