The Way the Water Held Me: Catherine Redford reads from her collection on young widowhood

Date/time: Saturday 12th September 2026, 2:00pm - 3:00pm

While newly married, with the couple expecting their first child, Catherine Redford’s wife was tragically diagnosed with a terminal illness. The Way the Water Held Me is a mesmeric plunge into the caring, grief, loss and love experienced by a young widow. Across poems of heartbreak and honesty, memory and mourning – and through unlikely companionship with a widowed Mary Shelley – this debut collection is visceral, profound and alive with what it is to be human, to have lost and to find ways to continue to love. It has been described by Liz Berry as ‘a beautiful, heartbreaking book’, with Fiona Benson calling it ‘essential, transformative reading’. Catherine will be reading from her collection and discussing the inspiration behind her poems. The session will conclude with a Q&A with the audience.