What does it mean to belong to a place?
Méadbh has always been fascinated by the magic and mystery of the British-Irish Isles - the fairy tales, folk narratives and ancient legends of these lands. As a writer and poet, she is interested the stories we tell - and have always told - about the land, the sea, and our belonging, and how through those stories we can be re-enchanted and discover a deeper connection to the places we call home.
Her writing is largely rooted in the landscapes of the West Country, the Cotswolds and the Hebrides. As a child, her family moved around a lot, a habit that Méadbh took with her into early adulthood. At last count, she had moved house over 50 times and says, “I am never sure quite where to call home.”
For now, she lives in an old stone cottage on the edge of the historic Wychwood Forest in Oxfordshire.
writing
Méadbh has written about folklore, nature, place and belonging for publications including The Wychwood, Dialect, Scottish Islands Explorer, The Pilgrim, Creative Countryside, and Nowhere magazines. Her work has appeared in the anthology Out There, published by Bath Spa University, which she also co-edited, and the anthology Dialect 2022.
Her poetry has been published in The Dawntreader, Dodging the Rain, the anthology Spirit of People and Place, and included in the Places of Poetry project.
She has also written about culture, women and motherhood in her married name for BBC Radio, The Independent, The Huffington Post, Families magazine and two books for Elwin Street Productions.
In her day job, she works for the Wychwood Forest Trust, a nature conservation charity.
“Méadbh’s writing is clear, focused and imaginative. Her strengths are her clarity of vision and her ability to write with humour, pathos and a real degree of perception about places, people and wildlife. In particular, she writes extremely well about three closely-linked areas: place, the meaning of ‘home’, and the past. Méadbh finds just the right balance between emotion and objectivity. Her voice is very distinctive, and her writing is always very readable - yet also complex and with real depth.”
