The Natural Born Storytellers of Camden

​The 16th October 2019 will see our  attendance at  a themed TWHP night of storytelling at the Camden Head and we can't wait! Lesley will be telling her favourite way home story with a few pertinent updates and Ellen and Rory will also be on hand to gather your written contributions, hand out details of where to find your written comments (here!!) and to offer a free download of Episode 1 with Val McDermid. If you can't attend the night, you can still join in by contacting us here at TWHP and answering  these 3 questions

1. Do You Live in Your Home Town?

2. Are you YOU because of, or despite your home town....tell us more if you can.

3. a)Why do you live where you do now? and
b)  What more you need to have a(n even) greater sense of belonging?

We look forward to hearing from you and 10 contributors will be picked at random in December to receive our TWHP tote bag! (see right)

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Update:

We had an excellent response on the night and here are your thoughts:
'Ello 'Ello
1. Not anymore.  Home was and forever will be a part of me and my childhood. During my travels, I feel more connected than ever with it but I am still looking for my roots. Thank You.

No, thank YOU 'Ello. I know exactly what you mean. ​L x

​Anonymous
1. Yes I do, I live in the suburbs currently (not from choice) I had a sense of secure childhood, surrounded by greenery but with a sense of adventure from having London a tube ride away.
It isn't flooded here, which is more than you can say for my London flat at the moment.It's calm and green and there are people here that I grew up with....maybe even too many people who think they know me but who I find closed-minded and dull. They are not my people.

Dr C
No, I don't. Ultimately no. I am me, because of my instincts, inner calling etc, as well as what the world has shaped me into but I feel I am mostly me, and what I do, because of how I feel in my heart. I travel and the benefits are opportunity, novelty, vibrance and things happening to make life better.I feel we need more independence, a greater desire to live and pursue life beyond money and be more focussed in love (renewable energy, free water supply etc) We could live more freely!

Anonymous 2
 I don't live in my home town. I am me both despite and because of my home town. It's only after years of reflecting upon my privilege and wealth that I understand my experiences there and how unusual they were.  I love London because there are millions of diverse strangers with great stories to tell in the same place.

....and wasn't tonight a perfect example. Lx

Anon. Mouse
No, but London might become my home town. I am me because I live in London.Here I managed to face life, to work on myself and to slowly become the person I wanted to be: sharing, independent, outgoing, daring, caring and more. I have the chance to meet many kind people here and I come across opportunities. I believe meeting a girl I like will give me a greater sense of belonging.

Finding a partner is something I waiver between really wanting whilst being reluctant to make room for someone else but I deeply recognise that desire for it to facilitate a sense of belonging...of rooting you in place. L x

AAG

No I don't but both are true of course! I grew up in a small suburb of New York famous for historically being a community of artists. My parents are both filmmakers. My friends are comedians and painters and musicians. Success to me has always​ meant creating something of your own.But I've lately felt that I don't measure up. I've had a backward rebellion. I live comfortably in London. I love the tube and buses but walking more often might help me to make more friends or understand the city better. I miss having small interactions with people I recognise and sort of know but sort of don't.

RUSSIS
​I was born in Russia but grew up in Israel, however I am neither a typical Russian nor an Israeli. So yeah!   ​(small painting but big picture Russis!)

ANON.E.MUSS
I moved to London when I was eighteen from another country so I am sure London influenced who I am a lot. The benefits of living here are  job opportunities and a fair salary...a good life. Having my family closer would help my sense of belonging.

A.PI
Despite of!!! Bucharest in Romania is a city I don't feel at home in.I love living in London.It's international, cultural,I follow my passions through my activities here.

BONES
Both! My bones are from my hometown and my skin is from the life that led me far from it.
(TWHP loves that)
The benefits are green space. local shops and quiet streets. More interaction amongst neighbours is needed.


NO KNEE MOSS

Because of!! I have lived in a multicultural, diverse and knowledge-rich city all my life and feel completely shaped by this. I am a curious adventurer and love  diversity  and a challenge as a result.
It's a place that is so rich in many ways. I'd like to share my experiences with many others, like we have tonight.


GLESGAE
No
Because of...
Glasgow is
warm, lovely and
family is everything.       (Haiku-ish and warm like your city. Lx)

SUBURBIAN
I do!
I am me because of it. I grew up in the suburbs of SE London which is a very diverse and multicultural area. As a mixed race person, this helped me to feel accepted and even embraced. It enabled me to learn about other cultures, identities and life experiences; life is so diverse.

I love the nature here. We always have foxes enjoying our garden and I even saw a hummingbird once.There are cultural, educational and social resources available to all.

(Suburbian...if this is yours, can you please get in touch through the contact page....I'd love to send you something for the trouble you took over this wonderful description.L x)


VICTOR
It's a combination. I live centrally in Victoria. It's close to work but there isn't much of a community.

REMEMBER ME

1. No

2. I would say both. I grew up in Colchester with an incredible group of friends who I have now been very close to for 26 years (I met them when I was 7). The laddish beer drinking culture was very much prominent in our town and we were very much part of that. It was definitely a huge influence on me. However, I left that 'home' 7 years ago and went travelling which then opened my eyes to other ways of living. Since then I have been moving around the country and in fact at times, the world, which brings me to now where I am living out of my car at on peoples couches. 

3. Living out of my car brings me huge flexibility. I am moving from house to house on average every week. This is very useful to keep things fresh and creative and also prevents me from getting into a routine which for me, I believe would kill the creativity. I suppose a sense of belonging as far as location goes is something that I am looking to avoid. But I go back to Colchester every month or so to see my friends and I would say that gives me a sense of home. 
(Doesn't the Bard of Salford live in Colchester?)

RIBRIB

No but I wish I lived somewhere else. many other places, with other languages. I live in London, the same city I was born in but in a different borough. so it doesn't feel like the same place.I am who I am because I grew up in London and because I stayed out late and drunk cider till I was sick at 14; because I went to filthy clubs in Tufnell Park and at 17 I knew you could only use the toilet in McDonalds on Tottenham Court Road at 1am, if you bought a drink.

 I've moved from borough to borough, from a Jewish to a Muslim to an Irish to a Caribbean to a Turkish community and at 32 I can still get lost in it all. I love that but I don't have a community so I don't feel like I belong.

C. DU

Probably a bit of both. It's impossible for the place one grew up in not to have a profound input on who you are, but I think having left the country and city that I grew up in has broadened my horizons and given me a very different outlook on life from the friends and family I left behind.
I love living in a city as cosmopolitan as London with so many people from all over the world, and so much to see and do.

RUBY
I am who I am because of where I grew up...a beautiful island in Southern Brazil. I grew up by the sea and as a young woman I lived life in full, experimenting, making art and being free. I feel longing for the life I lived but it has made me open, accepting and grateful for what I had.
London did not feel like home for a long time since I didn't really choose to be here. I felt like I did not have roots here. Maybe because the city is so big. But after flying 'home' for a holiday, I realised how much I wanted to return to London and it made me realise that London is home. I do miss the sea very much though. 
(Me too)

TWERKER
I wanted to move from the city of my birth, but that has little or nothing to do with who I am.It was and still is,  commuter land. I wanted to live in a proper city.
I don't need a greater sense of belonging. I am a Londoner and love it's wonderful diversity.
(Yeh!! Lx)

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Lockdown wisdom

Sofia
As a bit of a tumbleweed kid as parents moved around a lot, I don’t have that deep sense of belonging to any one place, so Stamford where there are lots of us from all sorts of places helps me feel less strange in my rootlessness. That said. My most stable time growing up was in the borders. North East Northumberland on the Tweed. I go up still at least every year, usually about this time and I’m yearning for the soft accents, the wide open seas and seal song. Thanks Lesley for a thought provoking piece. ( I wonder if you have read Linda Cracknell's book "Call of the Undertow?". I think you'd enjoy it)

Pippette
Really interesting and though provoking. I spent some of my childhood years in Japan and then when we returned to The UK lived until I left home in the house my parents are still in now. For me home is very much about the togetherness of the people in it who create a home together wherever that may be. Now that I have my own family I very much have a home of my own, but still see my parents house as a home.​