‘I mostly find that I don’t know what I want to say, or even what I really think about a subject, until I write the essay. An argument tends to arrive for me simultaneously with the writing of it, and the essays I find most rewarding to write and to read are the ones where a train of thought leads you somewhere you couldn’t have predicted arriving at.’

We chatted to writer and critic Anwen Crawford about what inspires her writing, and what makes creative non-fiction unique.

”I think all essays are ‘personal’ to the extent that an essay is, among other things, a reflection of the writer’s mode of thinking and an enquiry into their interests. ‘

‘A critic should set out without too many preconceived notions about what they might find before they’ve begun.’