Author Archives: Beth Wren
POETRY CORNER | POEM #7: Force of Nature
Because you cannot choose the way you are anymore than you can choose your own blood. And maybe I’m biased, but a monsoon beats a drought any day.
Review: Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert
It’s 3 a.m. and Elizabeth Gilbert is sobbing on the bathroom floor. She’s in her thirties, she has a husband, a house, they’re trying for a baby – and she doesn’t want any of it. A bitter divorce and a turbulent love affair later, she emerges battered and bewildered and realises it is time to […]
Returning to Yorkshire
Coming back to Yorkshire was like a homecoming for me. I lived in York for three years whilst at university and after a year away, it’s fair to say that I was missing – as the people of Yorkshire proudly put it – God’s own country. I can’t quite explain how much beauty and culture […]
Review: The Wise Man’s Fear, Patrick Rothfuss
There’s really nothing like dipping into a book feeling returning to an old friend. Comfortable, comforting, like it’s an old story you know and love. Reading The Wise Man’s Fear was like continuing on a long journey with people and places I was already very intimate with. It took a very long time (nearly 1000 pages), we got a […]
Reflecting on Reflection
I’ve been pretty busy lately – working two jobs, saving money for travelling, trying to find a social life somewhere, becoming the ultimate cliché of a struggling writer; altogether forgetting how to switch off and shut down. During times like these you’re so busy being busy, putting yourself on automatic just to get through the days […]
A Day in Brighton
Can we just talk about how amazing Brighton is? It’s like a magical land somewhere at the bottom of the country which doesn’t feel like it even belongs with the rest of the UK. The weather was warm, I had a Saturday off and I was with my favourite travel buddy. We wandered along the beach and […]
Review: On Chesil Beach, Ian McEwan
On a weekend trip to London when I had lent my Kindle to my brother and needed something to read, I picked up On Chesil Beach for sheer superficial reasons: it was thin and would fit into my already over-brimming backpack. Plus, you know, it’s so pretty. I had read it previously during my post-Atonement Ian McEwan phase, but […]
Manchmal Träum’ Ich Nur Von Dir
After having panic-bought flights as soon as I had arrived back in the UK, returning to Germany two months later was somewhat of a surreal experience. I had to take two weeks off from my new job with raised eyebrows of you were just there for seven months, why are you going back? And it was a good […]
Poetry Corner | Poem #6: Forgetting You (Fire Again)
Shadows and flames of people with no names. 1, 2, 3, and purge the memories of those who do not deserve to be remembered. Then you’ll feel better, I promise.
How to be Happy
I’ve been thinking about how to write this blog post for a while now. Unwilling to call myself in any shape or form a happiness guru, and knowing just how annoying it can be to be lectured by others on something so shifting, so personal, I have spent a lot of time mentally writing and […]
Bethany Wren 