Hello & welcome!
I'm so happy you're here and thinking about joining me while I settle into the warm, friendly space of my new online home here on Substack, as a filmmaker and mum navigating the messy fun of middle age and new beginnings. So pull up a chair, make yourself comfy and let me tell you a bit more about what you can expect.
What is 'Meandering over the pebbles'?
According to my dictionary, to meander is to wander without definite aim or direction, to take a winding path, or circuitous journey.1 For me, the word conjures up a delightful sense of unhurried freedom, spaciousness and possibility.
And the pebbles? Well, I live in the quirky, diverse British seaside resort of Brighton & Hove and one of the many, many things our city is famed for is its pebbly beach.
It's undoubtedly more challenging to walk on than a sandy beach. But that's part of its charm, along with the endlessly varying hues, shapes and sizes of all the individual pebbles that collectively make up the whole. I love it.
Put it all together and you’ve got a journey of countless tiny moments, gradually building into something bigger. Where the destination isn't yet quite known, and twists and turns along the way are definitely to be expected. And where you'll also need a bit of toughness and resilience – or at the very least a nice pair of flip flops - to carry you safely across the uneven terrain.
As far as I’m concerned, the very best kind of conversations are the meandering ones, but with a little bit of grit in there too to keep things real.
Won’t you join me?
What can you expect here?
I chose the name for my publication precisely because I'm in a period of both professional and personal transition at the moment.
Maybe you can relate?
And as I navigate these new chapters in my life, I feel drawn to record and share what I'm up to and how I'm thinking and feeling about it all – but away from the overwhelm, noise and algorithmic jostling of other social media platforms. To create a space to think, breathe and just take my time.
I want my Substack to be like sitting down with me for a coffee and a natter. I hope you'll find it both revealing and fun – I'm serious about my work and ambitions, but I don't take myself too seriously. I mess up, I make mistakes – we all do, right. But we can still have a little giggle along the way.
Subscribers will get:
my ‘Weekly Meander’ posts recording what I've been up to in the week just gone with a particular focus on my work +
a round up of other Substack posts I've enjoyed that week
one or two other posts per month exploring some of my current preoccupations & interests, including but not limited to:
making & watching documentaries (recommendations, occasional reviews, tales from my 25 years at the coal face as a researcher/producer/director)
life stories (inspiration, individual examples, practical ideas)
atomic history & culture (curious tales I’ve come across in my research, interviews with people working in and around nuclear power/weapons/waste/fusion, books, movies, music, art)
A note on paid subscriptions
I definitely want to experiment with all the possibilities this platform offers and see what resonates - we could do movie watch-alongs/discussion sessions or recommendation threads; certainly I want to include interviews with other people as well as sharing my own thoughts; I may play around with some audio or video…
Perhaps some of these experiments may eventually end up for paying subscribers only. But for now, all my posts are free and I don’t plan to put anything behind a paywall.
Nevertheless, I’ve decided to turn on paid subscriptions - as an easy way for anyone who wants to to support me and my endeavours. Any wonderful people who do choose to do this, will get:
a 1 to 1 video call with me (if you want one!)
my eternal gratitude 🤩
I’ve set paid subscriptions at the lowest monthly level of £3.50 a month, or £35 if you subscribe for a full year.
And for any especially kind & generous souls who feel moved to subscribe as a Founding Member, for £75 for a year, I’ll send you a little surprise through the post as a heartfelt, personal thanks!
Alternatively, if you’d just like to make a one-off contribution to support me you can Buy me a Coffee - virtual bear hug for that guaranteed 🤗
Who is this newsletter for?
If you're going through a transition in your own life or work, if you're a creative professional of whatever kind, if you're a parent, or if you're in mid-life, there's sure to be something here that strikes a chord.
If you love film & TV, especially of the non-fiction variety, you’ll get honest insights into the realities of trying to make documentary films as a 40-something mum, living outside London, at a time of turmoil and uncertainty across the entire industry.
If you geek out about anything to do with nuclear or the atomic (hello, friend!) then I have plenty of good stuff up my sleeve for you.
If you have a passion for preserving life stories, but don’t see yourself as a memoirist2 I aim to bring something a little different to that space through my skills & experiences in documentary.
And if you’re an entrepreneur - well, you’ll probably get a bit of a laugh watching me climb into the small business swimming pool with my inflatable arm bands on, splashing about enthusiastically, if not always entirely successfully. Hopefully it won’t be too long before I’m confidently front-crawling over to the deep end with the real swimmers. You’ll have to stick around to find out, eh!
ABOUT ME
You can read more about my story so far on the very first post I ever wrote on Substack here:
Who am I & what am I doing here?
And here are a few more headlines and fun facts:
I grew up in south London but moved to live by the sea in Brighton, about 60 miles south of the capital, over a decade ago
I’m a mother of two pre-teen children with big brown eyes and a cheeky sense of humour
During my 25 year career working in documentaries I’ve interviewed plane crash survivors, soldiers, scientists, recreational drug users, conspiracy theorists, former government ministers, people who’ve been attacked by sharks and self-identifying vampires
I spent 3 weeks in 2001 travelling around the United States with TV magician Paul Daniels and his glamorous assistant Debbie McGee
I helped to develop smash hit TV shows including American Pickers, the Property Brothers and Salvage Hunter
My debut feature documentary, ‘The Atom: A Love Affair’, on the social & political history of nuclear power, took over a decade to make and was released early in the pandemic in 2020. It was long-listed at the British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs) and is now on Netflix
I was born in the same provincial cottage hospital as J.K. Rowling
I’m a devoted fan of the Australian soap opera Neighbours
I’m allergic to tree nuts and stoned fruits (no Bakewell tart for me! 😢) and I hate celery
My favourite colour is purple
One day I’d like to go and watch the Tour de France in person
Kind Words
“I love Vicki's day to day accounting of what it's actually like to be a producer of documentaries. The nitty gritty is where the magic happens and she writes about it so eloquently.” -
from“I love the sweeping arc of her movie, ‘The Atom: A Love Affair’, and enjoy keeping in touch with her ongoing creative adventures.” -
from“I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed, and relate to, your latest Meanderings. I’m no great judge, but I am very much enjoying your easy style of writing and the truths you share about life’s highs and lows. Keep it Coming.” - from Cameron, via email
Some housekeeping
Substack is both a newsletter and a blogging platform. If you subscribe you’ll get every post sent straight to your email inbox and/or to your inbox in the Substack app.
You can always let me know what you think - and I’d love to hear from you - by hitting reply in your email, or by leaving a comment underneath the post if you’re reading in the app or online.
And you can read all the posts in the archive at any time on the website.
It’s also a particularly sinuous, winding river – the picture is of Cuckmere Meander, one of my favourites spots on the south coast of England, not too far from where I live.
There are some amazing memoirists here on Substack if you do want to try your hand - just search for memoir and you’ll find a real treasure trove to guide and inspire you.
