‘All of us are terrible parents at some point’

Mothers. We’ve all got one, or had one, and our relationships with them can be loving, fraught, empowering, frustrating … and even creative.

All Roads Lead to Mother is the title of an exhibition of work by mother and daughter artists Sam Pooley Stride and Daisy Pooley Tolkien Williams. It was shown recently at Shrewsbury’s Swan Hill Studios, a space that Sam Pooley Stride believes is part of an explosion of artistic activity in our county town.

‘This is a moment … I do feel there’s a renaissance here, something’s happening to this town’

In this episode of Hello You the Shropshire podcast, Sam Pooley Stride shares the story of Swan Hill Studios, and also unpacks some of the themes behind her and Daisy’s exhibition.

Boob wallpaper

They’d been talking about putting on a show like this for quite a while, but perhaps extra urgency was added by the recent loss of Sam’s mother, Daisy’s grandmother. Sam Pooley Stride reveals stories about her mother’s past, including an affair and an elopement to South America, her mother’s adoption - ‘for the sum of ten shillings’ - and the revelation that Sam’s adoptive grandmother had a hysterectomy at nineteen years of age, but craved a child so much she was tempted to steal one.

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The privilege of avoiding the news

At the start of this episode I mention an article I’d read which reminded me that I’m lucky to be able to limit my news diet.

Not everyone can turn away from the news, because often their lives are the news.

This is the article in question. Please read and share it?

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