John Mitchinson’s

Zeitgeisters

Profiles of the people whose ideas are helping to shape the future

REBECCA
SOLNIT

If there is a patron saint of this column then it has to be the American writer and activist Rebecca Solnit. Her ability to weave together original historical research, personal memoir, and political activism has generated 28 books and countless articles, and inspired millions of readers to look at the world and their lives in fresh and hopeful ways.

More than any other contemporary writer, she’s not only taken up the mantle of public intellectual, she’s unpicked and re-woven it into something new, with brighter colours and stronger threads.

Where to Start?

A daunting task given the range and quality of her output.

It’s tempting to recommend her 2021 book Orwell’s Roses, which delivers an unfamiliar Orwell, the passionate gardener who found in the lush exuberance of nature an antidote to the stale puritanism of ideology. Or her viral essay Men Explain Things to Me, one of the very few contemporary books which has inspired a new word (‘mansplaining’). Or the very latest collection, No Straight Road Takes You There: Essays for Uneven Terrain, a book in praise of slowness and imperfection.