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Author: beverleystevens

I'm a writer of creative nonfiction whose day job as a copywriter at Xero involves drinking flat whites, writing and editing. Outside of work hours, I can be found drinking wine, walking and exploring Wellington, reading and listening to classical music.

Letting go of the children (or, I’ve not got Alzheimers yet)

February 5, 2020July 10, 2020 ~ beverleystevens

Kahil Gibran wrote that your children are not your children. Even as a student in the 1970s I recognised the truth in what he said. And it turns out, bringing up children is a series of letting go's, from taking your hands off the back of the two-wheeler bike to walking away on the first … Continue reading Letting go of the children (or, I’ve not got Alzheimers yet)

Out the window: a photo journal in words

July 30, 2019January 5, 2021 ~ beverleystevens ~ 2 Comments

A journal of journeys around Wellington harbour by bus, car, and on foot in the month of July. 

Leaky orange Mazda, baby, and me

July 17, 2019July 24, 2019 ~ beverleystevens ~ 4 Comments

After years in the corporate world, I was more than ready to embrace the role of earth mother. Of course, that's not quite what happened.

Chasing clouds: tracing the Wordsworth connection

June 12, 2019December 11, 2020 ~ beverleystevens ~ 3 Comments

My efforts to pin down the family connection to the poet William Wordsworth have been like the clouds that float high above the hills and vales of the Lake District which inspired him. They’re real but constantly moving; they seem sometimes to come together, then they change direction and are off again. Like family history research, they are quite unpredictable.

Is this really Spring: Wellington in September

May 19, 2019July 17, 2019 ~ beverleystevens ~ Leave a comment

An ode to Wellington where despite the winds, spring brings quiet exhilaration and exuberance.

The pretty red dress that Nana sent

April 4, 2019May 11, 2019 ~ beverleystevens ~ 2 Comments

Two small-town girls go to stay with their Nana and Pop in the city and discover they live life in a much richer way.

Clara’s story: memories of Rippon Lea

February 19, 2019July 17, 2019 ~ beverleystevens ~ 4 Comments

Clara Wordsworth Sargood grew up in comfort and affluence at Rippon Lea in Melbourne in Queen Victoria's time. She vividly recounts stories of a happy childhood, the heartbreaking loss of her mother, and the thrills of sea voyages to England and New Zealand.

I remember when: a world without plastic

January 15, 2019May 11, 2019 ~ beverleystevens ~ 3 Comments

I'm glad to be rid of plastic in the home for aesthetic as well as planetary reasons. And it's not so long ago that my mother and grandmothers managed without it.

Caught driving furiously on Khyber Pass Road

January 6, 2019July 20, 2019 ~ beverleystevens ~ 1 Comment

In 1912, a well-brought-up young man on a new motor cycle knocked a young boy over on an Auckland city street. And so the lives of two families from different social worlds intersected as police and civil court cases plodded on and were reported on at length in the Auckland papers.

The lost love of Linda and Lancelot

November 11, 2018July 20, 2019 ~ beverleystevens ~ 1 Comment

Amongst my grandmother's papers was a photo she had kept all her life of a young soldier who served in WW1.

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