Thunderstone
WINNER OF THE ACKERLEY PRIZE FOR MEMOIR 2023
Longlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize 2023
‘There is just one object I want to carry inside the van… It was believed lightning would not strike a house that held a thunderstone. I place this fossil on the windowsill, its surface gleaming like cat’s eyes ahead of me on a dark road.’
In the wake of a traumatic lockdown, Nancy Campbell buys an old caravan and drives it into a strip of neglected woodland between a canal and railway. As summer begins, Nancy embraces the challenge of how to live well in this unconventional place. But when illness and uncertainty loom once more, she must discover a way to hold on to beauty and wonder.
Peter Parker, Chair of judges of the Ackerley Prize: ‘Nancy Campbell calls Thunderstone “a true story of losing one home and discovering another”. Largely written in the form of a diary, it describes how, in the wake of breaking up with her partner, she moves into a caravan parked beside a canal and a railway line on the fringes of Oxford. Here she finds a new community of people who, by accident or choice, are living on the margins, and she observes them with a sharp but affectionate awareness of human foibles and frailty. Campbell writes fearlessly about what it means to love and lose both people and things, and how one survives this. Written with wit, grace, and a poet’s eye for detail, this is a wonderful book about the power of hope, and the consolations of small accomplishments and the natural world.’
Reviews
‘A beautiful and often very funny account of hope and healing in the face of illness and uncertainty.’
- Yvonne Reddick in the TLS
‘This raw, honest account of semi-urban caravan life offers a valuable lesson in how to find beauty and wonder even in the most trying of circumstances […] she is wonderfully alert to every nuance of every experience, and writes with joyous precision about the summer she sees unfolding all around her.’
-The Scotsman
‘A many-splendoured book, which is at once an after-love, ever-loving letter to her ex; a real-time journal to keep herself company and emotionally intact; a worked-over piece of literary art (Campbell writes beautiful prose) and a rich newcomer to the latest and most exciting department of place writing.’
- Horatio Clare, The Spectator
‘One is swept along by the subtle, elegant prose and a narrative that is rich in literary references, sometimes carried away by poetic drift, yet overriddingly a visceral, energising sense of a life lived well’
- Country Life
‘I’ve read Campbell’s work before – the gorgeous crystalline perfection of Fifty Words for Snow gave me tightly controlled, crisp prose delivered with scientific precision. Thunderstone is different. Campbell’s deft hand with language remains, but under the microscope now is herself, in raw and emotional detail. […] Campbell’s depiction of the canal community where her caravan resides is tender and warm’
- Kate Blincoe, Resurgence & Ecologist
‘I picked this book up to have a quick browse and two hours later wondered where the time had gone. Thunderstone is an honest and moving account of the author’s journey through a series of traumas, from the onset of the pandemic — coinciding with her partner’s stroke — to dealing with her own illness. This book is an uplifiting, positive and poetic look at life in all its rawness: a celebration of change, self-discovery, and off-grid life that is, quite simply, a pleasure to read.’
- The Countryman
‘I hope to thank Nancy Campbell for this book in person someday. For giving us this humbling, honest, raw & deeply moving book that reminds us what it means to be alive.’
- Caught By the River
‘An utterly beautiful, life affirming, soul shaking, heart-breaking wonder of a book. […] This is a humbling, honest, raw and deeply moving book that reminds us what it means to be alive.’
- Kerri ní Dochartaigh, author of Thin Places
‘Thunderstone goes well beyond mere memoir. Nancy is a badass, a wild woman corralling experiences of poetry, humanity and the natural world to shape visions of new ways forward for us all.’
- Matthew Teller, author of Nine Quarters of Jerusalem
A courageous, compassionate, uncanny chronicle of life and loss on the fringes.’
- Dan Richards, author of Outpost
‘A memoir of great honesty and clarity, intimacy and subtlety… It asks profound questions about how to live through the storms of life with authenticity.’
- Gavin Francis, author of Adventures in Human Being
‘A writer of quiet strength, clarity and empathy, with a traveller’s eye for detail and the precision of a poet, Nancy Campbell is the wisest and kindest of guides through heartbreak and beyond.’
- Nick Hunt, author of Outlandish: Walking Europe’s Unlikely Landscapes
‘If this is a story of grief and illness, loneliness and heartache, one is left with the feeling that here is a writer who knows better than most of us how to live.’
- Helen Jukes, author of A Honeybee Heart Has Five Openings
‘Nancy Campbell’s deep knowledge of art, nature and other cultures is completely transporting […] I couldn’t put it down.’
- Tanya Shadrick, author of The Cure For Sleep
‘Beginning with an elemental howl of grief, poet and explorer Nancy Campbell’s new book swiftly morphs into a handbook of post-disaster reconstruction, the building blocks of which are close observation, humour, and visceral engagement with the world around her.’
- James Attlee, author of Under the Rainbow: Voices from Lockdown
‘Hopeful, honest and lyrically written, a memoir which celebrates resilience in precarious times.’
- The Simple Things