Five Questions for... Julia Bennett

As part of our series of occasional short interviews with contributors and friends of Elsewhere, we asked Julia Bennett our five questions. Julia contributed an essay, ‘Another Place / Another Time’, to our recent Trespass issue. You can read a selection of Julia’s other work for Elsewhere here.

What does home mean to you?

Home is familiarity. The smooth dip in the seat of the armchair which fits me perfectly, the faint trace of felt tip on the table left by a toddler, long ago. The favourite coffee mug, a gift from someone precious, who is remembered every time it’s used.

Which place do you have a special connection to?

There’s a walk I used to do regularly, sometimes three times a week, around Rawhead on the Sandstone Trail in Cheshire, which I wrote about in Elsewhere. There I feel the vastness of the wider world and my very, very small place in it all.

What is beyond your front door?

My neighbourhood is beyond my front (and back) doors. Since working on a community gardening project to brighten up our alleyways I have got to know more of my neighbours. It’s lovely to feel that being home, being known, begins at the end of the street, rather than at my front door.

What place would you most like to visit?

I would love to travel along the Silk Route, but ideally travelling back in time too! Tashkent and Samarkand have always sounded enchanting, exciting places as they were a millennium ago – a cultural melting pot bringing together East and West.

What are you reading / watching / listening to / looking at right now?

Through the window I can see my very small garden. The passionflower is covering the wall and snooping over into next door. The Japanese anemones are swaying in the breeze. Both attract a host of pollinators so when I’m sitting outside I’m surrounded by a gentle buzz.

Julia Bennett is a sociologist and writer of non-fiction and short sociological fiction on the theme of place. She has had short stories published in The Sociological Review fiction series and So-Fi Zine. Further work can be found on her Academia page.