It is honestly fascinating how some of the most piercing fiction comes from those who have seen the world’s hardest realities up close. Lara Pawson, a former BBC journalist who covered intense conflicts in Angola and West Africa, is a perfect example of this transition. Her latest work starts with such a deceptively simple, haunting image: a young girl in Somerset living with her parents, an old man called 'The Major' and her mother, in a tiny village with just a few old houses and a church. There is something about that specific shift, from the high-stakes reporting of international politics to the quiet, dusty, and perhaps stifling corners of a rural English childhood, that feels incredibly raw. It makes you wonder how much of our global perspective is actually rooted in those early, isolated memories of home. This kind of writing bridges the gap between the monumental and the minute, and I am definitely keeping an eye out for her upcoming novel. #literature #journalism #culture https://thoxt.com/l/rOX6wV 🔗