Ahoy!
Photo credit: David Horgan. Me in a shepherd’s hut in North Wales.
Who am I?
I’m Emma Silverthorn, a writer and educator living in South London with a man and a rescue cat. I teach English Literature, Language and Creative Writing to students of all ages, (a bit more on my academic side can be found here). In 2023 I published my first non-fiction book, Roaming Wild, which is the biography of my grandparents Anna and Peter Roberts who were the founders of animal welfare charity Compassion in World Farming. That book can be purchased here, if you’re in the U.K. and here if you’re in North America, (as well as you know where else, the one named after a beautiful rainforest). However, most of my creative time these days goes on my fiction writing, some of which you can read here. I like intrepid travel, zen yoga and literary podcasts - shout out
! My favourite sound is a toss up between the wind through the trees and tires on gravel. My desert island book would be Virginia Woolf’s The Waves. I prefer stripes over gingham, baths to showers, and rat-tails over soul-patches. (Second shout -out to: the ThornKim Questionnaire! If you know, you know.)Why Substack?
I decided to start this Substack in November 2022 for some of the reasons I’ve expounded on here and I decided to name it ‘After the Fact’ for reasons explored here.
What will you find here?
non-fiction: travel sketches, personal essays/cultural commentary (‘Fish Out of Water’ tales)
Five Fine Things (semi-regular cultcha recommendations, including occasional guest posts such as this one from David Horgan Art and this one from Mark T. Vernon)
Literary experiments/play…
Collaborative work in collaboration with creative friends (for example Half a Dozen Haikus here)
Satisfying Soundbites AKA Street Poetry: stuff I overheard on the bus, walking the streets, while in a yoga class…
Posts about animals such as this one, this one, and this one. Flotsam and jetsam indeed.
Join me!
Sign up, it’s free! What is there to lose, bar some of your precious time?
There is now also (since May 2023) a ‘paid’ option which supports what I do and allows you, dear reader, access to more writing. You can subscribe and support me - via Refer a Friend - below. Thank you very much.
Testimonials from regular readers…
‘BTW After the Fact provides mental acupuncture relief to my stressed out work week. I look forward to every email.'
‘Emma, the things you post on-line are wonderful, witty, and inspiring.’
‘You have an incredibly cool writing style, I love it! Keep up the good work… incredibly disciplined yet captures you quickly into the story.’
And if you too like what you read then do please refer a friend as per below…
