In this episode, I sit down with the brilliant, Emma Forrest, in her gorgeous, cosy, feminine home. Emma, is a novelist, memoirist and filmmaker, and her work is known for its emotional precision and unflinching honesty, exploring love, identity, grief, and the ways our past shapes who we become. From her early days as a teenage columnist interviewing cultural icons in 90s London, to her deeply personal memoirs and films, Emma has built a body of work that feels both intimate and expansive. Following divorce and a major life shift from Los Angeles back to London, Emma reflects on starting again, and what it’s meant to create a home from scratch, here in her home town, London. In this episode, we explore what home really is, not just the physical space, but the emotional architecture behind it. We talk about our shared childhood experiences of being othered, and how our childhood homes, loss, and movement across countries shape our sense of belonging. Emma shares how living in what felt like the “wrong” house for her, a new build devoid of history and texture, deeply impacted her mental health, and why she feels most at ease in spaces that carry stories. A quiet testament to just how profoundly our surroundings shape us. We also talk about Emma’s deep connection to light and views, and why she will always choose a top-floor, for openness, safety and epic views. As someone who loves entertaining and designing my entire home for that purpose, it was very interesting chatting to Emma about the reasons and need for creating a home for cocooning - a reminder that your home doesn’t have to perform for anyone else, but can simply just function for you alone, and hold you and yours. Towards the end of the episode, Emma shares something quite extraordinary, a deeply personal experience of mentally revisiting her childhood home, moving through it room by room, drawer by drawer, a moment that reminds us that the right home never truly leaves us. Closure doesn’t always arrive when we expect it to, and that sometimes we need to return, even if only in memory. It leaves us with a simple truth, that a well-lived home, much like a well-lived life, is never perfect, it is layered, shaped by change, and sometimes chaos, and filled with traces of everything that came before. This is one of my favourite episodes so far, and I hope it will resonate deeply with anyone drawn to the emotional side of making a home. And the ways identity, belonging, and personal history shape the spaces we can create to make a home that help to heal us after life throws us a curveball. You can find Emma here: Instagram Substack Send us Fan Mail ******************* Hi, I’m Tash South — interior designer, renovation consultant, and founder of South Place Studio. In this podcast, I share practical renovation advice, along with deeper insights into home and belonging. If you’d like more resources and support, head to: https://www.southplacestudio.com/freebies If you’re navigating your own renovation, my RenoVersity programme offers a structured, guided and thoughtful approach to renovating with clarity, confidence and intention https://www.southplacestudio.com/renoversity Or if you want to get social, you can find us here: Instagram: @southplacestudio Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/south-place-studio Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/southplacestudio
