Matrescence author Lucy Jones on the deeply transformational nature of motherhood, the calm of a graveyard and what she learnt from studying slime moulds

We walk among the headstones of a cemetery with journalist and author of Matrescence, Lucy Jones, as she talks about the struggle to reconcile the societal ideal of a mother with her own experience, how her search for insight led to her book Matrescence and what she learnt by observing slime moulds and lichen. Lucy always knew that having kids would be a big shift, but when she did, she was shocked to find that not only had her life changed, something fundamental to her identity had changed as well. Her own experience was so at odds with society’s ideal picture of motherhood that she became fascinated by the science and sociology of what becoming a mother entailed. On a walk through her local cemetery, she examines what she learnt about parenting, how we could shape a world around care and what slime moulds have to teach us. A Life More Wild is an 18Sixty production, brought to you by Canopy & Stars. Production by Clarissa Maycock. Our theme music is by Billie Marten.