Barbara Whitfield

I write novels, screenplays, and poetry and go for very long walks.

I have co-written several comedies (produced in Oxford, Edinburgh and Cape Town) and a screenplay. My debut novel, The Rest is Silence, was short-listed for the Jenny Brown Associates’ ‘Debut Writers Over 50 Award’, while the short story, Spreye, won the Two Lit Chicks’ inaugural flash fiction award.

Over the last two years, I have developed the practice of taking poems for a walk. I walk somewhere that suits a poem, read the poem into nature and record it with voice and image. It’s a service I offer others, so feel free to make a request whether in a moment of joy or gratitude or a time of confusion or despair, or simply because something takes your fancy. You can read about the process in more detail in an article in the journal of the Work that Reconnects – https://journal.workthatreconnects.org/2023/09/02/on-taking-a-poem-for-a-walk/ Or follow me on Instagram.

For the last ten years, I have taken an annual pilgrimage and have walked the Caminos Frances, Ingles, Portugues, del Norte and Fisterra to Santiago de Compostela; the Via di Francesco from Florence to Assisi; The Saints’ Way across Cornwall. These pilgrimages are shared with my oldest friend and have become an apprenticeship in noticing, connecting, and sharing, and a masterclass in wonder.

Over a long working life, I have variously stuffed envelopes, sold fish, books and coffee, carried out research for the OED and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, and edited non-fiction. I also completed a doctorate in Spanish Art History. Currently, I live on a smallholding between the hills and the sea, in West Wales.

I am delighted to be represented by Lisa Highton at Jenny Brown Associates