The memoir is a fascinating form to explore. I’m always intrigued as to how an author can adapt their life and fit it into the confines of a page. How does one capture all its complexities, contradictions, and fleeting moments, in a narrative that feels both honest and coherent? My guest today is Susanna Crossman, a British-French writer, essayist, and clinical arts therapist, who has just published Home is Where We Start with Penguin Random House. The book is her own account of growing up in ‘the fallout of the Utopian Dream’ – in a politically revolutionary Community in the late 1970s. In the fascinating work, she blends memoir and social commentary, weaving philosophical ideas into the wider narrative of her own experiences with community and disillusionment. It was great talking with Susanna today, and I’m so pleased to be able to share her insightful, nuanced thoughts about literature in general.

Susanna has recently started a Substack, which you can check out here.

Susanna Crossman’s four books were:

On The Banks of Plum Creek, Laura Ingalls Wilder (1937)

The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera (1984)

Memoirs of Hadrian, Marguerite Yourcenar (1951)

What is Ancient Philosophy?, Pierre Hadot (1995)

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