📖 Featured Book of the Month ~ Tamesis Street by Cressida Cowell et al

 

ShelterBox
7 October 2021

My thanks to ShelterBox and Laura Lees for my copy of this book

London, 2050. Catastrophic flooding has breached the Thames Barrier.

As Londoners fight to escape the remains of their city, a group of neighbours must band together for survival...

Global disaster relief organisation ShelterBox launches Tamesis Street, a collectively written story about climate change, as part of its hugely successful book club.

The book is a collaborative writing project, in development for over a year and featuring well-known authors, celebrities, journalists and people living and working in the areas that ShelterBox supports. Climate change is driving increasingly extreme weather events, such as severe floods and droughts, which destroy homes and force millions to be displaced each year. ShelterBox is working on the frontline of the crisis, providing emergency shelter to communities bearing the brunt of our heating world, and recently sent a team to respond to the 7.2 magnitude Haiti earthquake which has destroyed or damaged more than 130,000 homes.

A total of 30 authors have contributed to the book, including Cressida Cowell, Bill Bryson, Kit De Waal, Joanne Harris, Samira Ahmed, Michael Donkor, Balli Kaur Jaswal, Stig Abell, and Chris Packham. The book features a foreword by ShelterBox Patron, Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cornwall, and Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate provides the afterword. Sir Quentin Blake has illustrated the cover.

Tamesis Street is available via the ShelterBox Book Club. To join, visit shelterbox.org/book-club/. Memberships can also be gifted in subscriptions of 3, 6 or 12 month packages. The club was launched in 2018, inspired by the communities ShelterBox supports after disaster, and is focused on international stories from diverse authors.

About ShelterBox

ShelterBox is a disaster relief organisation providing emergency shelter to communities after disaster. We help vulnerable people who have lost their homes to extreme weather events like hurricanes, floods and draught; seismic events like volcanos and earthquakes; as well as protracted crises including conflict.

We have worked in Syria for 10 years, we respond frequently in the Philippines, and we are currently working in places including India, Honduras and Sudan. When it comes to the climate crisis, we are on the front line, supporting those bearing the brunt of extreme weather - we work with communities who often have the least resilience and resources to withstand the changing conditions. https://www.shelterbox.org

ShelterBox Book Club

The book club was launched in 2018, inspired by the communities ShelterBox supports after disaster, and is focused on international stories from diverse authors. For a monthly donation of £10 - every 6 weeks members vote on what to read next from a handpicked selection. Subscribers receive a book in the post and join discussions virtually, on Zoom and in a thriving Facebook forum - where authors frequently host Q&A events.

https://www.shelterbox.org/book-club/

The contributors to Tamesis Street are:

Andrew Michael Hurley, Balli Kaur Jaswal, Bill Bryson, Chris Packham, Cressida Cowell, Charmaine Arcos from FACE Inc. ShelterBox’s partner in the Philippines, Emma Yule - Book Club Member, Helen Lederer, Jay Rayner, Joanne Harris, John Lanchester, Kayleigh Kelly - Book Club Member, Kerry Hudson, Kirsty Logan, Kit De Waal, Ather Al Atyiah, ShelterBox’s partner from ReliefAid in Syria, Mary-Noel Abia Mbata, ShelterBox’s partner from IEDA Relief in Cameroon, Michael Donkor, Mike Leigh, Miriam Mwazimva – ShelterBox’s partner from Habitat for Humanity Malawi, Monique Roffey, Patrick Gale, Samira Ahmed, Sarah Tagholm, Sarah Waters, Stig Abell, Veronica Henry, Wyl Menmuir, Yi Shun Lai, Sir Quentin Blake.

📖 My thoughts...

Tamesis Street is set in a future time which is eerily prophetic of what we could experience unless the climate challenge is faced and appropriate action is taken now. This cleverly woven collection of tales has been penned by thirty really good writers who each write a paragraph and who bring their own special interpretation of events to the story. 

Tamesis Street is set thirty years into the future, when the mighty River Thames bursts its banks, and it is a cautionary tale which is as diverse as it is consuming and which collectively is very powerful. I found the message of the story to be both poignant and heartbreaking in equal measure and it is both beautifully written and so well edited that you don't see the join. 

Without doubt, these thirty talented writers have produced a story which stays long in the imagination and for that reason I have no hesitation in making Tamesis Street my Featured Book of the Month for December. This beautifully presented little book is the perfect gift for Christmas, and beyond, and is available by taking out a subscription to ShelterBox Book Club. 

Tamesis Street is available via the ShelterBox Book Club (shelterbox.org/book-club) and memberships can be gifted in subscriptions of 3, 6 or 12 month packages.

Twitter @ShelterBoxBooks #TamesisStreet

Website

@LauraLees14

Review ~ Letters to the Earth Introduced by Emma Thompson

William Collins

14 November 2019

Letters to the Earth brings together the voices of children and the public with authors, scientists and playwrights in the first creative project of its kind.

Alongside letters from the public, Letters to the Earth received submissions from artist and peace activist Yoko Ono, actor Mark Rylance, writer and illustrator of The Lost Words Jackie Morris, novelist Anna Hope, environmental writer Jay Griffiths and Green Party MP Caroline Lucas . Together they are an invitation to consider how this existential threat affects the way we live our lives and the action we take.

Lots of books consider the climate and ecological crisis from a political or scientific perspective, but Letters to the Earth is the first book to chronicle how humankind is collectively processing planetary crisis.

What did I think about it..

This is an interesting collection of emotional letters and documents which collectively give a greater awareness of the strength of public feeling on the subject of climate change.  We can continue to hide our heads in the sand but no-one can fail to see the impact of adverse weather conditions on our planet, and regardless of our individual political agenda, climate change is something which is affecting all of us right now. We only need to look at the severe impact of earthquake, devastating forest fires, and closer to home, the destruction caused by frequent flooding in those areas where flood defenses are stretched, quite literally, to breaking point.

The Letters to the Earth are written by people who represent all of us - from parents and children, politicians and poets, actors and activists and songwriters and scientists, all seek to remind us that we are facing a world in climate crisis. The individual writings are all quite different in content, however, the one thing they all have in common is the amount of passion expressed in each and every heartfelt plea for us to stop, look, listen and act now, before it's too late.

Beautifully presented in an easy to read format, Letters to the Earth, has something for everyone to consider, from letters by those people who are instantly recognisable like the activist Yoko Ono, to a letter written by a perfectly articulate 12 year old, but what they all have in common is that each and everyone of them makes you stop  to really consider the impact of climate change.

I've been thoroughly educated by reading Letters to the Earth because it's written in a way which speaks to all of us in a strong and meaningful way. It's one of those books I'll definitely keep on my book shelf and read frequently to remind me that we can all do our bit to save this world in crisis. 

I really don't want us to be the ones who cause so much irreparable damage to this beautiful planet that we bring about its destruction.

Twitter @CultureDeclares #LetterstotheEarth

@WmCollinsBooks