In this honest, open, and reflective conversation, Sunday Times bestselling author, journalist, and podcast host Clover Stroud joins Mandy Manners, SHE RECOVERS Trusted Advisor and Coach, to discuss writing as a tool for recovery, letting go of shame through sharing our story, and how it can help as a way to connect with and help others.

Clover talks about her process as a writer to connect with her emotions and how it has helped her through grief, motherhood, and change. She talks about what has shifted since becoming sober. How she has found it a powerful tool for creativity and connection. Clover discusses how her sister Nell inspired her sobriety journey in the years before she sadly died from cancer at the age of 46 in 2019. 

Together, Clover and Mandy discuss growing up in the UK in the 90s and the hedonism of that time, especially both growing up in the English countryside. They discuss what home means to them whilst living abroad, which was the subject of Clover’s fourth book, The Giant on the Skyline, and how belonging may not necessarily be a place or a person, but a specific feeling. Clover talks about learning to find new ways to connect in sobriety through crafts and her Substack community. She discusses what being sober has given her in terms of connection with her children and her marriage, and how it is something she feels proud to talk about.

About Clover:

Clover Stroud is a Sunday Times bestselling writer, journalist, and host of her own podcast, Tiny Acts of Bravery. Her first book, The Wild Other, was shortlisted for The Wainwright Prize. Her critically acclaimed second book, My Wild & Sleepless Nights: A Mother's Story, and third book, The Red of My Blood, were instant Sunday Times bestsellers and rated amongst the best books of the year in which they were published. Her fourth memoir, The Giant on the Skyline, was published in May 2024. Having spent the past three years living in Washington, DC, with her husband and the youngest three of her five children, she recently returned to her UK home in Oxfordshire.

https://www.cloverstroud.com/
https://www.instagram.com/clover.stroud
https://cloverstroud.substack.com/
https://shows.acast.com/tiny-acts-of-bravery

About Mandy:

Mandy Manners is a certified life and recovery coach. A qualified coach supervisor, trainer, speaker, and author. She is a certified SHE RECOVERS Coach and Trusted Advisor for Education and Pedagogy for the SHE RECOVERS Foundation.

https://www.mandymanners.com 

Resources Mentioned in Episode:
https://sherecovers.org/recovery-storytelling-workshop/

SHE RECOVERS Retreat: From Memory to Memoir

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Step into your story this autumn. Explore this retreat here.

About SHE RECOVERS® Foundation

SHE RECOVERS Foundation is a non-profit public charity and a global grassroots movement serving thousands of women and non-binary individuals in or seeking recovery from life challenges, including mental health issues, trauma, and substance use. SHE RECOVERS is dedicated to redefining recovery, inspiring hope, ending stigma, and empowering women to increase their recovery capital, heal themselves, and help other women do the same.

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