“We lived in places where you could wake to wildness,” encountering “monkeys and snakes and various kinds of incredible birds,” she said. “They paid us to memorize the poems,” Rundell said of her parents. “I was a very mercenary kid, and had quite a retentive memory.”Her books are infused with loss, something she encountered early on. When she was 10, her beloved sister Alison died from a congenital illness at the age of 16. “She was the most gentle person I’ve ever met, and so when we lost her, I just knew I would never meet anyone like her again, and I never have.”

---

Persons: Rundell, ”, John Donne, ” Rundell, “, Alison, “ I’m Locations: Britain, Harare, Zimbabwe