Betsy Cornwell – författare

Betsy Cornwell left home with her baby on his first birthday, checking into a hotel under a false name so her husband could not track them down. Over the long months of housing insecurity that followed, bouncing around cheap motel rooms and friend's couches, Betsy's determination to offer her son something she'd never had - a safe, stable home - took on the force of obsession.In The Old Knitting Factory, Cornwell invites readers to join her on the path that led out of her violent marriage and into renovating a run-down house on a lake in rural Ireland, transforming a largely abandoned and abused vacation house into a family home and childcare-inclusive arts retreat space for other single parents. Along the way, she creates community and finds family wherever she goes - even when she has to build it herself, brick by brick.Mixing Maid's gripping portrait of single motherhood's precarity with The Salt Path's wild, romantic sense of place - in this case among rural Ireland's cool mists, nubbly Aran yarns, and whispering turf fires - The Old Knitting Factory invites readers to experience the magic of found family and new beginnings.

Betsy Cornwell left home with her baby on his first birthday, checking into a hotel under a false name so her husband could not track them down. Over the long months of housing insecurity that followed, bouncing around cheap motel rooms and friend's couches, Betsy's determination to offer her son something she'd never had - a safe, stable home - took on the force of obsession.In The Old Knitting Factory, Cornwell invites readers to join her on the path that led out of her violent marriage and into renovating a run-down house on a lake in rural Ireland, transforming a largely abandoned and abused vacation house into a family home and childcare-inclusive arts retreat space for other single parents. Along the way, she creates community and finds family wherever she goes - even when she has to build it herself, brick by brick.Mixing Maid's gripping portrait of single motherhood's precarity with The Salt Path's wild, romantic sense of place - in this case among rural Ireland's cool mists, nubbly Aran yarns, and whispering turf fires - The Old Knitting Factory invites readers to experience the magic of found family and new beginnings.

On her son's first birthday, Betsy Cornwell fled her home, checking into a hotel under a false name so her husband couldn't find them. In the uncertain months that followed, her fierce determination to give her child what she never had - a safe and stable home - saved them.In Ring of Salt, Betsy traces her journey from that desperate moment to Ireland's windswept west coast, where the Atlantic Ocean crashes against ancient cliffs. There, nestled beside a quiet lake in the wilds of Connemara, she discovers a long-abandoned knitting factory - forgotten, but full of possibility. She sets out to restore it into a sanctuary for herself and her son - and, eventually, a creative refuge for single mothers.As she renovates the crumbling house and fights to keep custody of her son, Betsy begins to rebuild something more: a sense of belonging. In the cool mists of the countryside, and with the help of fellow survivors and an unexpected community, she pieces together a new kind of family.Mixing Maid's gripping portrait of single motherhood with Wintering's wild, romantic sense of place, this is a powerful memoir of survival, new beginnings, and the quiet, everyday magic of finding home on one of the world's most storied and soul-stirring coastlines.