Written by best-selling author Julia Gregson, Crossing Borders is a book about female success. It contains interviews and photographic essays that celebrate 21 remarkable women who live and work in the border area between England and Wales, many of whom have received worldwide recognition in their field. This is a truly exceptional record of talent and achievement. Each subject candidly describes their balance between family and work, the personal borders they had to cross to achieve their goals and how living in the country helped them to find or create their perfect job. Inspirational and aspirational women are Crossing Borders with Julia Gregson. 21 women living in the Wye Valley share their daily lives with bestselling author and journalist Julia Gregson. Women interviewed include Royal Harpist, Hannah Stone; Revel Guest, film director and Chair of Hay Festival; Jenny McLoughlin, paralympic sprinter; Tiffany Murray, novelist & lecturer; and Jean Miller, painter. The book also features a barrister, a mezzo soprano, a butcher, a circus owner and an alpaca breeder. AUTHOR: Julia Gregson is the prize-winning author of three novels, one book of non-fiction, and numerous short stories that have been read on the B.B.C. and published in The Literary Review, Red Book and Good Housekeeping . Her first novel, The Water Horse, published by Orion, was runner up in the Waverton Good Read Award. Her second book, East of the Sun , was chosen for the Richard and Judy Book Club and became a Sunday Times best seller in the U.K. and was published in 28 countries. It won Romantic Novel of the Year and the Prince Maurice Prize for Literary Love stories. Julia s third novel Jasmine Nights (2013) was also chosen for the Richard and Judy Book club, the first novelist to be chosen twice. Her first short story won the Ryman s Literary Review Short Story Prize. Previously a journalist, for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Times, Good Housekeeping, and Rolling Stone in the U.S.A., she is married and lives in the Welsh Borders. She has one daughter and four stepchildren.
Industry Reviews
Crossing Borders is a fascinating look at the daily lives of twenty-one interesting and accomplished women, who all happen to live on the Welsh-English border near the river Wye. Among others, we meet novelists, gardeners, a circus owner, potters, painters, an athlete and a barrister.
The book was conceived and produced by author Julia Gregson and photographer Alex Pownall, both of whom live in the Wye Valley. The pair originally set out to discover and, in their words, 'report on the lives of twenty-one women', and what they found was a group of women whose lives and routines were highly diverse and yet who all seemed to be strongly influenced by the countryside around them.
Reading the book is rather like going for a cup of tea in each home and peering into the daily lives of a large group of motivated and productive women, who also find time to give back to, and get involved in, their local communities.
What I enjoyed most about the book is the diversity in these women's routines. The message seems to be that you should find what makes you happy, embrace it and believe in yourself. There is no timetable or magic formula apart from enthusiasm, enjoyment and application. We meet Anne Wareham, a landscape gardener and writer who 'hates planting bulbs' and stays in bed until midday because it's a good place to deal with daily admin. Anne admits, 'I still don't know why in the hell I do the gardening', and yet her garden at Veddw House, which is open weekly to the public, 'has twenty-five distinct areas including a magnolia walk, a hosta walk and a woodland walk'.
Other women we meet rise at 4 or 6.30 a.m. and may spend hours practising their art (harpist Anna Stone) or training for their sport (paralympic sprinter Jenny McLoughlin), but what unifies them seems to be that they are all working hard at something at which they are uniquely talented. Painter Jean Miller didn't start painting until she was 68 and now paints seven days a week, as well as exhibiting and selling her work.
Many of the women walk, run or horse-ride daily in the Wye Valley and are inspired and supported by the beautiful landscape around them. Textile artist and writer Ineke Berlyn has incorporated the red kites she saw at Rhaeadr into her beautiful colour quilts, and has succeeded in living in a carbon-neutral way, generating more energy than she consumes.
You can't help coming away from reading this book with a renewed sense of what great things are possible if you stay positive, apply your natural talent and do what you love. -- Caroline Stockford @ www.gwales.com
