Children don't dissolve in the rain

Adele Cleaver was born in Birmingham in the 1980s. She describes herself as a nomadic Brummie whose wanderlust has taken her to the likes of Lisbon, Accra, Tokyo, Salvador da Bahia, even Timbuktu. She now lives in Bournemouth on the south coast of England with her husband and four year old daughter. She started writing in November 2019 through an art therapy course she enrolled on after her second miscarriage. She began reflecting on her varied career in playwork and how her professional experiences helped her overcome some of the challenges of parenthood. She found her approach to raising their child very different from her peers: she makes play her priority. Her book is a playful manifesto about the importance of play: her play, her daughter's play and play in the community.