My Body Is A Meadow is an ode to our natural world and a sharp and urgent call for an open and accessible landscape. By binding poetry to prose and memoir to manifesto, Bethany Handley writes a deeply perceptive account of her journey accessing the south Wales countryside since becoming a wheelchair user.
Handley, an award-winning writer, poet and disability activist, is also a naturalist; she embodies her environment so much that she becomes it. Each passage is a gift that reveals something sobering: the systems in which we live have long been gatekeepers. Architectural barriers (such as gates, stiles and steep terrain), everyday ableism and the perpetual ecocide are all disabling tools to us and our planet. Accessing nature should not be this difficult: we are nature ourselves and belong in our landscapes.
While doctors, policymakers, and non-disabled people pressure Handley into overcoming her conditions, she embarks on a journey of radical acceptance. Wheeling through the Welsh countryside among mountains and rivers, she makes space for all of her feelings as she learns that “grief and joy can co-exist”. Compelling and change-making, this book is an essential read for those who love the outdoors.
