Davina and Miriam discuss the moment in her life when her father was diagnosed with lung cancer, a moment that is central to her book. She and her husband were living with her parents at the time, and while she continued to be very involved in her father’s care, she chose to move out of the house in his final months, one of several moves that would take her away from suburban London and deeper into the British countryside. Together they explore what life might have looked like had she stayed living there, along the way examining the ebb and flow of grief, the unexpected impact of wartime trauma and the resilience we can find in the most challenging times.

Davina Quinlivan is a Lecturer in the Department of English and Creative Writing at The University of Exeter. She taught at Kingston School of Art for over a decade and regularly leads the ‘F: For Flânerie' film and literature seminar series at The Freud Museum. She lives in a rural hamlet on the outskirts of Exeter with her family. Her new book Shalimar: A Story of Place and Migration is published by Little Toller and has been co-published in audio by Spiracle Audiobooks. She is currently working on a book about rivers and migration, mothers and daughters, as a loose follow-up to Shalimar.

Make sure to subscribe to hear the rest of Season 3 – in each episode, Miriam Robinson interviews a guest about another path their life might have taken. Together, step by step, they write the stories of their unlived lives.

Produced by Neil Mason

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