Katherine May wearing a colourful striped dress smiling next to a rustic wooden door
Books & Debates

Enchantment: Reawakening Wonder in an Exhausted Age

Katherine May
Tue 14 May 2024 , 19:30
Loading performances

After years of pandemic life – parenting while working, battling anxiety, feeling overwhelmed by the news-cycle and increasingly isolated – Katherine May feels bone-tired, on edge and depleted.

Could there be another way to live? One that would allow her to feel less fraught and more connected, even as seismic changes unfold on the planet?

In her new book, Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age, the author explores a different path – the restorative properties of the natural world – from a pebble in the hand to the humbling effects of the sea, the pleasure of the ground beneath her bare feet to the magic of a moon shadow. Through deliberate attention and ritual, she finds nourishment and a more hopeful relationship to the world around her.  

In conversation with actor, comedian, writer and creator of the award-wining podcast Griefcast, Cariad Lloyd, she looks at the restorative properties of the natural world – from a pebble in the hand to the humbling effects of the sea.

Katherine May is an internationally bestselling author and podcaster living in Whitstable, UK. Her hybrid memoir Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times became a New York Times, Sunday Times and Der Spiegel bestseller, and was adapted as BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week. The Electricity of Every Living Thing, her memoir of a midlife autism diagnosis, is currently being adapted as an audio drama by Audible. Her journalism and essays have appeared in a range of publications including the New York Times, Observer and Aeon, and she is the host of The Wintering Sessions podcast. She lives in Whitstable

Co-presented in partnership with Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts

Audio Brochure Event Listing