Heather Jane Tanner, (nee Steeley and on her Mother’s side a descendant in the Coward family), is a writer from Ulverston, UK. Born on Abbey Road in Barrow and raised in the village of Lowick until she was 19, she then moved with her family to Ulverston in 1997.
She studied for a Business Diploma with Music Management in Durham city and later graduated with a Masters in Creative Writing from Newcastle University in 2006. She was accepted for her PhD in the same year but had to defer – probably the longest deferral in history!
She returned to Ulverston from Newcastle in 2023 after raising her family. Over the years she has also worked as a music journalist, a band manager and an art dealer’s assistant, running a vintage importing corporation alongside her husband until his death in 2016. She was an influencer for the Vogue network in 2013.
Facing some implications to health and following her daughter’s move to University she moved back to her home county, choosing the market town of Ulverston as a base to be near the remaining members of her immediate and extended family.
Where health allows she enjoys archery, reading, gardening, interior design, history, music, guitar and writing. She remains ever curious about others and has an obsession with architecture, particularly Georgian! She is currently debating on returning to the deferred PhD, retraining for an MSc in Forensic Psychology or pursuing another freelance business within the realm of virtual environments where she has spent almost 18 years learning pixel architecture. There is also the matter of the gospel backed, Ukulele based, Backstreet Boys cover band.
Q & A
TIU : Why is it called this?
HT: When I arrived back here I had a lot of questions like why are there suddenly a hundred tractors outside my window? Why is there a backend of a horse across the road? Why does everyone party like its 1999 on a Friday and Saturday but it’s deathly silent by Sunday? The exact answer every time was, well, this is Ulverston. I had forgotten a lot of it!
TIU : What is the motive behind This is Ulverston?
HT : Personally it is a social prescription and one that I do find a challenge both with mental and physical fatigue but it helps my overall health and skill set. It is also a project for the people of the town. I like life stories and giving people time to talk about themselves because recently there has been so much social disconnect it is hard to get back to the basics of being human. People are overworked, stressed, broke and often running on this treadmill of social media in order to stay relevant or seen. All that is incredibly bad for human spirit as well as physical health so if I can get one person to chat with me I can hopefully get others to take the time to listen to or read about them. What someone does is interesting but who someone is is the really important thing and by that I mean how they conduct themselves, how they treat everybody and how they view the world. Not what they have in terms of status, land, money, power, influence etc. I am not swayed by those elements. Most people have a lot to say and backstory that comes with it. People should have curiosity in who is living near them or working alongside them. I also think it is important to have a free voice to a great extent. I am certainly not partisan personally – I don’t see myself as left, right or even in the middle. I just see humans with lives – everybody with this one, fragile gift – and what are they choosing to do with it? The hope is, something positive.
TIU : Favourite Ulverston spot?
HT : So far rediscovering old ones like Gill Banks but a new one to me at least since I moved back is Swarthmoor Hall Woods and I have a garden in Dragley Beck so that surrounding area plus the beach at Conishead and Canal Foot in the dark will always hold special memories for me. I miss being fully mobile and I don’t know yet if that is even possible for me in the future I just do what I can. I used to do Duke of Edinburgh expeditions and was regularly in the Duddon and up the Coppermines. Not being able to do that or managing a very diluted version of that is highly frustrating. So in Ulverston I get to the places I love but sometimes I need help to access them. My free bird spirit just wants to roam most of the time!
TIU: Favourite Shop?
HT: Everywhere featured so far in This is Ulverston with more to come – I have found myself like butter spread over too much bread in the last six months but am working on new shops to explore. I am not very materialistic these days – I like quality things that last a long time rather than a lot of things but books and records are my downfall…and I am a big believer in the energy of previous owners transferring to the new so I am careful about it I use a lot of salt in my home because I do like antiques 🙂 My newly discovered favourite shop is Appleseeds!
TIU: Writers that have influenced you?
HT: I am a big fan of gothic horror, magical realism and science fiction. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Washington Irving, Algernon Blackwood, Mary Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe, Angela Carter, Neil Gaiman, Ray Bradbury… hmmm mostly writers who’ve died? I guess I just don’t read many contemporary writers I know what I like from a certain set of eras and stick to them. To me it is important to separate a writer personally from their body of work. I might not have the same views as Kate Bush to pick an example but I really like her work. One Hundred Years of Solitude is my top novel I think, it is hard to pick just one. Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens was my favourite children’s book. I don’t read much fiction at the moment – I am usually reading case studies or researching topics that interest me and keep me up at night which is often along the lines of simulation hypothesis / the afterlife / forensic psychology and near death experiences. I’ve built virtual environments and elements sporadically over the last 18 years so I do follow a lot of VR / AI related publications and organisations. Even if the world as we know it is not simulated, the future for humans certainly contains robots and computers merging with organic material – and it will contain a lot more simulation and whilst that is the opposite of what I would personally choose for the world, it is happening and most writers in the field feel that the only thing we can do now is to make those simulations and virtual worlds as safe and comfortable as possible. Knowing the enemy is important so I follow these writers because I care about people and our unity as a whole as well as my children’s world and their children’s world. Simulated or not!
TIU: Other influences?
HT: I certainly look up to anyone who is broadcasting or interviewing people without being partisan about it. Duncan Trussell and his Midnight Gospel episode “Mouse of Silver” was a catalyst to thinking oh you know maybe I should get back into interviews. I still have my music contacts but I didn’t want to go back into that I wanted to do something more meaningful. I am a fan of Lex Fridman he has consistently interviewed people as people despite the whole range of political and social ramifications that come with that. On the other end of the scale I love Amelia Dimoldenberg’s Chicken Shop Date. I like to present different views on This is Ulverston, sometimes opposing views and I obviously don’t agree with everything that is printed here. However it isn’t really the topics discussed that are at the heart of it – this is more of a social experiment if anything to see if I can build a catalogue of life stories from one geographical area. How many people will be featured? How will their lives change? Will I revisit them? I started this in January 2024 – will I be doing it in ten years time? Will someone rediscover it in a hundred years time? Imagine discovering a time capsule full of interviews from Ulverston people a century ago. Not just newspaper articles or quotes but proper conversations that took place. I think once I’ve built it up that it will be quite a useful resource. There was a news story recently about a message that had been found inside a lighthouse left by the previous keepers – that kind of thing always peaks my interest but it was just a record of who was there and what their jobs were. Important as a record yes but I want to know how they felt that day, who they loved, why they became lighthouse keepers… the very human side of it that often gets overlooked. If they had found a personal diary that would have been very exciting. I do this in long form for many reasons but trying to catch an authentic face to face conversation without influence over how everyone looks etc, is one of them and having to read something that is longer than the average internet offering is another. So many people are learning from a few sentences on a Tik Tok video now it is very unreal. Because society can be cruel it can create monsters so there is a tendency in people to downplay themselves, to dim their light in case they step out of whatever acceptable social level they find themselves in and are penalized for it but you can’t grow or nurture anyone else if you suppress your light – Rihanna wrote a song about it!
TIU : Do you have any dream interview subjects?
HT: I wish I had interviewed my Dad and my Son’s Great Grandmother who had been born in 1922 and was a land girl during the war. It was in my mind but when you have a small child and not very many opportunities to meet the time we spent was more about just that – spending time. This is why most of my interviews are done with people who are in my sphere at the time because I recognise the moment and act on it. I want to be more diverse with the people I feature but I am not a box ticker and Ulverston is very much a certain demographic although things are changing so lets see. I let it grow organically. I could give you a long list of dream interview writers, guitarists, artists and scientists but no one would reach the end of it.
TIU: Favourite things to do in Ulverston?
HT: Seeing my family. That is the main reason I moved back to the town. To see them and give / receive support. When you have lived away as a single person raising kids in a crazy world it makes you reassess the importance of a stable base. Unfortunately my dad died in 2020 before I could make the move and so it is bittersweet in many respects. He was a huge train enthusiast – most of the men in my family like trains and models. I think I inherited this interest in miniatures from them but lately I’ve also found myself taking my Son to see all the different trains that come through Ulverston station so I guess I am a bit of a closet trainspotter. As mentioned I love walking and being outside although in the last few years this has been restricted. Ulverston is great for walking and I do have a small garden because I believe in the power of soil! What I need to do more of is take advantage of the many holistic health practitioners in the town. I have a list of things I want to do if there ever is found a cure or I manage a remission, (latter being the most likely of the two), and it involves finding a good outdoor safe place to shoot arrows, go to the beach more often, take advantage of Ulverston bus and rail links more, (I don’t drive), see more of The Lake District in general, really. Eventually I want to meet someone new and start that next phase of my life and most definitely live a little further out of town. I am traditionalist in that sense – I appreciate true gentlemen and I’ve found one here in Ulverston – but I am waiting for him to work out if he wants to pursue it. I have my fingers crossed but I don’t know if I am that fortunate – so only time will tell. Things are not balanced and have to fall into alignment. I try not to jump the gun and chill out wherever possible but it’s a calling and it’s hard to navigate. Super kind, fun, understanding, intelligent and obviously handsome – and I can’t even look him in the eye most days! It’s Tuesday as I am writing this and I overheard him singing a little song today which made me smile because it seemed like he was in a good mood. He’s just the best. I guess I appreciate the simplest of things about people. It might sound mad but without a little bravery and a little magic, life just cycles on in a sort of endless groundhog day. I am drawn to brave people who know what they want, they know themselves and I’ve met quite a few brave people in Ulverston. My heart has always been in the mountains and lakes but having raised kids in the city and come back I realise how reliant I have become on amenities and so I find living back in Ulverston a challenge when I can’t just hop on the Metro to get out of town, book an Uber or ask Deliveroo to cycle to Boots! I like the fact that Ulverston is a vibrant town at many times of the year but that whole aspect of nightlife that we have here I don’t really partake in unless there is a specific gig or festival event. I really enjoy chatting to the people I meet for this website and the places it takes me to. Insisting on portraits taken in the natural habitat has me in some behind the scenes types of places. My latest interviewee took me on a tour of all the giant Buddha statues that are being created at the Manjushri Art Studio. I would probably never get a behind the scenes look at that otherwise and I would never meet such interesting people. The conversation itself is the most fun part. Everything else is admin to me but it is important that I present it as well as I can and with ease of access to those who need it.