Words by Smiley Team
Envisaging the future through fiction, Linda Nicklin explores how humanity can cope with the climate crisis.
In both her writing and everyday life, she urges older people such as herself to impart knowledge, resilience and adaptability that will help younger generations to protect life on Earth.
In her writing, she shares ideas for how humanity can combat the climate crisis. Away from her keyboard, she supports campaigns led by environmental group Deep Water, to encourage action to tackle Climate change triggered extreme weather events such as flooding.
Linda started drafting her first book after 30 years of working in social care. When an opportunity arose to leave this sector, she accepted it and immediately started dreaming of all the ways she could use her newfound spare time. “When you're free to do anything, your head fills with ideas,” she tells Smiley News. “Six months before I finished work, I made a list of fun things to do. I got to 111 and one of them was a Master's in creative writing.”
Now aged 68, Linda has published her first novel, Storm Girl. Following the success of this first book, she is in the process of writing her second, and also has a couple of plays under her belt. Each work employs a different approach including satire, children’s stories and dystopian fiction. But throughout them all runs a constant theme: climate change. As a climate activist, this topic is always on Linda’s mind.
“Everything I write is about the climate,” she says. “I think about it when I wake up, when I read the news, and even when I look in my shopping basket.”
To deal with such a heavy subject, she sees her writing as a kind of guide for younger generations, as well as older ones. “As you grow older, you might lose some abilities. But you also gain massive resilience, knowledge and experience,” she says.
Storm Girl recounts the journey of Angel, a young woman who slowly discovers how to end the plundering of the planet. It centres around intergenerational exchange, describing how older people, made invisible by society, are the primary driving force for positive change, uplifting younger people with their wisdom.
She sees her books as a prompt for anyone who reads it, rather than an instruction manual for action with immediate effects.
“I come from a very stubborn family. So I know there's no point in telling people what to do. So what I’m doing is sowing the seeds for the planet's future, then waiting for readers to think it was their idea.”
TAKE ACTION: Support campaigns against extreme weather conditions driven by climate change, by joining Deep Water.
DONATE: Support Cool Earth, a nonprofit fighting for climate justice.
WATCH: 5 resolutions for cleaner oceans in 2022.
