Episode 10: Jini Reddy. Finding Magic in the Landscape.
Welcome to episode 10 of Prompted by Nature. I hope this one finds you happy and well wherever you are!
This week I’m excited to release the conversation I had with the lovely Jini Reddy back in mid-May.
Jini is an award-winning author and journalist, originally born in London to Indian parents who grew up in apartheid-era South Africa. She was in Montreal, Canada and has a passion for writing travel, nature and spirituality. She has been published in publications such as The Guardian, Time magazine, The Times, Sunday Times Style, National Geographic Traveller, and BBC Wildlife to name just a few! Her first book Wild Times, which I highly recommend, was published in 2016 and she is a contributor to the forthcoming Women on Nature anthology.
Her book Wanderland, which we discuss in the episode, is utterly beautiful and charts Jini’s search for the magical ‘Other’ through her travels around the UK. From the blurb, ‘along the way she tracks down ephemeral wild art, encounters women who worship the goddess, falls deeper in love with her birth land, and struggles, but mostly fails, to get to grips with its lore. Throughout the book she rejoices in the wilderness we cannot see and celebrates the natural beauty we can.’ This is a book full of magic and if you’re feeling a bit disconnected from nature, I highly recommend this as a gentle nudge to get back into it and remind yourself that you and nature are both as magical as each other!
In this episode we discuss:
Her background and her inspiration for the book
What she means when she talks of the magic in the landscape
The concept of the magical ‘Other’ and how this relates to ‘Othering’
Accessible nature and the need to shift the dialogue around visibility in green spaces
The importance of hearing a range of voices in nature writing
Following your intuition and the source of creativity
Writer’s block and how she stays creative
The link between Belonging and Nature
Nature as an animate entity
The joy of being given freedom to what the book you want to write
The link between travel writing and nature writing
What she would like to pass on
Before we get started, we had a few connection issues, which you’ll hear in the episode, it doesn’t detract from Jini’s words, but explains if there are a couple of fuzzy bits.
If you would like to find out more about Jini, you can find her on her website www.jinireddy.co.uk and on Instagram @jinireddy20 and Twitter @jini_reddy Jini also offers mentoring and consultancy for writers which you can find out more about via her website www.jinireddy.co.uk/work-with-me
As always, you can find me on the website www.promptedbynature.co.uk or on the ‘gram @prompted.by.nature and if you like this or any other episode, please do leave a five-star review wherever you are listening or share with your circle via social media or in real life. I’m passionate about getting these words and voices out there, so anything you can do to share the podcast is always welcome!
Remember to stick around until the end when I’ll give a little insight into the meditation and writing prompt that follows this episode.
Enjoy the conversation and I’ll speak to you soon!
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Meditation and Writing Prompt
Welcome to my meditation and writing prompt for my interview with Jini Reddy. For this one, it's more of an explanation. You'll decide on your own prompt - fractals, patterns, similarities, synchronicities, details, reflections and such - and use a walking meditation to help you to slow down body and mind into a state of deeper 'noticing.'
At the time of recording we are in the latter part of 'lockdown' and so if you are still shielding, this is still possible to do inside your house, in a community garden or in your own garden.
Please do let me know how you get on - www.instagram.com/prompted.by.nature or www.promptedbynature.co.uk
Happy writing!
Helen x
