Books by

Person Irresponsible

Everywhere I Never Wanted To Go

I’d first discovered that “Van Life” was a real thing in the pandemic and was quite fascinated by the challenge of it.

Before I realised it, I found there were loads of women buying converted vans and campers going off on their own and revelling in their experiences. This alone convinced me to give it a try - after all, it is a well known fact of women’s lives that we find doing stuff on our own either scary or we feel terribly self-conscious. 

Once I got underway, I realised that I knew very little about my own country. In part because I have spent the vast majority of my life since a young age living overseas. Even when I was here I was locked up in a boarding school, confined to just a few rooms, static views and a plethora of rules and regulations. It was a suffocating, harrowing and hideous way of being brought up.

Moreover, almost all cultural and historical recounts of our fine lands are about war, war and more war. I noticed that hardly ever were women and women’s lives mentioned, and if they were, it was as a foot-note, or done cack-handedly, like “Women can be pirates too” to shoehorn us into men’s history. I wanted to explore my heritage - the stuff that shapes the English women’s psyche. 

That’s why as I recount my adjustment to “Van Life”, I wove in the Englishwomen’s legacies and cultures, as well as some of the more illuminating experiences of being sent away to boarding school very young, and the psychological impact of such an upbringing.  

Read more about this book

Reviews of
'Everything You Ever Taught Me"