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Fragments of an ordinary life

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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.

Through the front door

March 20, 2020May 5, 2021 ~ beverleystevens ~ 2 Comments

‘There must’, we said, ‘be a back exit’. But a mental scan of the corridor outside revealed no discreet service lift. Just a series of hotel-like rooms and, opening up in the other direction, the bland living and dining area, then through that to the large lifts down to the ground floor and further below, … Continue reading Through the front door

The loveliness of lists

March 14, 2020May 18, 2020 ~ beverleystevens ~ 6 Comments

Lists are not the bane of my life, far from it. Without lists, my life would be as bereft as a day without music, as soulless as a world with books, and as empty as a fridge without cheese.

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)

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, 2019May 3, 2022 ~ 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.

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