Vik Bennett

A lot of what I write is about the small things that grow around me. This is partly because life has slowed me down long enough to realise that this holds all manner of wonder right there beneath my feet. But that doesn’t mean I don’t like to wander. So it was an extra delight to be able to chat with the wonderful @phoebersmith and share a bit about my new book #theapothecarybythesea and magic of Orkney, island life, and the wandering that brought us here to our new home. You can listen to the episode via the link in my bio 💙 And if you don’t know Phoebe’s podcast or her own writing, do check both out 🌟📚

Needing a little rest and recovery tonight 🌸 This wild brew is a blend of mallow, rose, lemon verbena, chamomile flowers, orange blossom and bergamot flowers. Gentle, restorative and full of light 💚🌸🌱#theapothecarybythesea #herbaltea #wildflowers #apothecarygarden #theorkneyapothecary

Thrilled to find out that tomorrow’s in-person event at @orkneylibrary is sold out 💚 Part of the fabulous @orkneynaturefestival 🌱 Looking forward to meeting everyone and sharing more from my new memoir #theapothecarybythesea 🌸🌱📚#naturewriting #naturefestival #author #orkney

🌟Wild Women Writers’ Salon 24 — Wonderfully Other: On Disability, Visibility, and the Right to a Rich and Radiant Life🌟 With @beewyld @grace_quantock @cosmogyny @rachelcdailey @pollyrowena 📆Thursday May 28th 7-8.30pm BST 🎙️Online & Recorded 🤟BSL supported 🎟️Pay What You Can 🔗Link in bio @beewyld What does it mean to live a full, vivid, expansive life in a world that so often asks disabled people to shrink, adapt, or disappear? In this salon, we embrace the wonderfully other, not as something to overcome, but as something to honour, explore, and claim. 🌟Hosted by Victoria Bennett, this conversation brings together four extraordinary writers whose work reshapes how we understand disability, visibility, care, and the body: 📚Grace Quantock, author of Living Well with Chronic Illness, whose work offers a compassionate, practical, and deeply human roadmap for navigating long-term illness with agency and self-trust. 📚Rachel Charlton-Dailey, author of Ramping Up Rights, who writes powerfully on disability justice, systemic inequality, and the unfinished work of access and equity. 📚Sophie Strand, author of The Body Is a Doorway, whose lyrical, philosophical work explores illness, ecology, and the body as a site of transformation and connection. 📚Polly Atkin, author of Some of Us Just Fall and several poetry collections, including her latest, Emergency Dream, exploring chronic illness, landscape, and belonging. Together, we will be exploring the politics of being seen, the tension and difference between survival and flourishing; disability as identity, experience, and culture, and the right to joy, pleasure, creativity, and a life that is not defined by limitation 🌟This is not a conversation about overcoming. It is a conversation about living fully, richly, and on one’s own terms.🌟 As always, the salon is an intimate, thoughtful space, with time for audience reflection and questions. So let’s get the conversation started 💖 Tickets available now. #wildwomenwriterssalons #disability #author #inspiringconnections #booktalk

🌸GIVEAWAY🌸 To celebrate National Wildflower Week, and one week of The Apothecary by the Sea being out in the world, I wanted to say thank you to everyone who has supported the book so far. So I’m giving away: 🌿 A signed copy of my new book, The Apothecary by the Sea, published by @elliottandthompson 🌼 A bespoke wildflower seed mix, created in collaboration with @kent.seeds inspired by the wildflowers and landscapes of the book. “An enchanting story centred on the herbal delights of Orkney. A tale of travel, arrival and the wonders of wild gardening.” @jrcanton1 (author of Renaturing) To enter: 🌱 Follow this account 🌸 Like this post 🌾 Comment with your favourite wildflower 🌻 Tag someone who would love this book For an extra entry, share this post to your stories and tag me so I can see it. 🌟UK entries only.
🌟Giveaway closes in 7 days. Since the 1930s, the UK has lost around 97% of its wildflower meadows. Wildflowers matter not just because they are beautiful, but because they feed pollinators, support biodiversity, and reconnect us to the living world around us. 🌱Here’s to changing the world, one seed at a time🌱 #TheApothecaryByTheSea #nationalwildflowerweek #wildflowers #bookgiveaway #SeedsofHope

A last in the day happy birthday to Sir David Attenborough. Everyone has a David Attenborough story I think — whether it is a moment of inspiration or a refuelled sense of hope or a personal meeting. Mine is something I will always treasure. When I was trying to choose which publisher offer to go with to publish my debut memoir, All My Wild Mothers, a big part of that choice was knowing that David Attenborough had published the stories of his earlier adventures with one of them. I figured if my story of what it is to grow beauty and hope in broken ground could be in the same stable as the man who had inspired my dad and my son, and me, then that was pretty good. After my memoir came out, a handwritten letter arrived addressed to me. It was from David Attenborough, thanking me for writing the book and saying how he had enjoyed it, and wishing my son and I well. Such a special gift to receive, quietly and I’m not sure to this day which my son thought was more impressive — his mum publishing a book or getting a letter from the Man Himself (actually, I do know 😂). I’ve kept the letter in my desk as a reminder that when we share our stories, we connect — and that however small and insignificant our corner of the world may seem at times, no matter how powerless we might feel, we can all be part of change, all part of creating a better world, one small seed at a time. That feels really important to hold onto now. So — this is my happy birthday, to a man who inspired my dad 52 years ago to take an adventure of a lifetime, and my son to see the wonder in the world, both big and small, and me to believe we can all make a difference. And it is, after all, such a wonderful world 💚🌱🌸 #davidattenborough #allmywildmothers #bethechange #smallseeds #wild

Link to Podcast in Bio 💖🌱🌸 Thank you @rootsandallpod for inviting back to chat about the move to Orkney and growing an apothecary garden here. I loved our conversation 🌸 #theapothecarybythesea #podcast #orkney #wildgardening #gardenpodcast 🎙️What happens when you follow a decades-long love affair with a place all the way to its shores? Victoria Bennett did exactly that, uprooting her life in Cumbria to start afresh on the windswept islands of Orkney — new garden, new climate, and an inspiring vision for a community apothecary space rooted in creativity, care, and the land itself.

I am absolutely thrilled to be included in the latest issue of @outdoorswimmer talking about my new book, The Apothecary by the Sea, my return to outdoor swimming and my relationship to the sea here in Orkney as a source of strength, release and wonder at this mid-point in my life. It was a gift to be able to explore in this rich and gentle conversation with Rowan Clarke — thank you ☺️🌸💖 My relationship with open water is complex, tied up in grief and trauma around my sister’s death. I used to love swimming when I was a young child. It was where I felt most at peace, and strongest and I thought nothing of swimming a couple of miles across deep lakes. Somewhere in my late teens it slipped away from my day to day, and became something I did only on the hottest of days in the rivers and lakes of Cumbria, and then not at all. To get back into the water, to trust it again, has been hard but important to do. It returns something to me that I thought was lost - as the sea often does 💜 And an extra delight to see this issue shared by the wonderful @pollyrowena and her forthcoming new book Swimming the Seasons, out soon with @sarabandbooks 💙🦭 And if you fancy some cross-pollinating selkie-influenced reading time, why not get yourself a copy of my new book, Polly’s new book, and the latest issue of Outdoor Swimmer Magazine! #theapothecarybythesea #outdoorswimming #orkney #seaswimming #newbook

💚🌸☺️ The Apothecary by the Sea started the week at Number 1 in Cultural Botany alongside the incredible Braiding Sweethrass by @robinwallkimmerer 😮 — such an important work that has reshaped and opened up global thinking about our relationship with the wild things that grow. One of my all-time favourite books, it is a huge honour to find myself keeping company ☺️💚 I am fighting down the internalised message about “not showing off” and I know these things are temporary and also that A..zon has a lot to answer to in its global practice but it is also a moment I want to mark here, as a writer, as a wild woman, as a grower of small things 🌱 Thank you for all the massive support for this book and my story and for all who continue to sow the seeds of hope 💚 And if you don’t know about it yet, do check out Robin’s new global movement @plantbabyplantmvmt 💚🌱🌸#theapothecarybythesea #bestseller #braidingsweetgrass #wild culturalbotany

I had the pleasure of chatting with Lauren Robertson about living with chronic illness, apothecary gardening, and how swimming in Orkney’s seas supports wellbeing 🌸 Delighted to see it in today’s @psmag.sundaypost 😁 #theapothecarybythesea #chronicillness #ehlersdanlossyndrome #haemochromatosis #orkney

From wild swims in the waters of Orkney to an apothecary garden by the sea 🌿🌊 This week on Badii Talk, we’re joined by author Vik Bennett to explore what sea and soil can teach us: through ritual, folklore, and a deep connection to place. Listen now + find the full episode wherever you listen to podcasts (link in bio).

There was so much love for these beautiful apothecary flower cakes created by @theflowercakegirls especially for the launch of #theapothecarybythesea that I decide they needed their own parade 🌸💜☺️ Also, how magical is it that the blooms have started to open too 💖 Swoon 💖 They are almost too good to eat. Almost. After all, they are cake! 😌 Thank you again @sarahrneely #beautifulcake #wildflowers #cakeart #booklaunch