Hi, I’m Catriona Turner, author of Nest: a memoir of home on the move. I’m Scottish, and I’ve spent the last fourteen years living abroad with my family, between France, Uganda, Congo, and Denmark.
Now back in Scotland, we’re dealing with repatriation. Will it be our hardest move yet?
The journey began in a bookish meet-cute with the man who is now my husband. Click here to read that exclusive story!
“After years of life-changing transition, how could I know what normal looked like any more?”
When Catriona Turner seized the opportunity to leave Scotland for a three-year stay in southern France with her fiancé, she had no idea that over a decade later, she would have moved on from the Pyrenean foothills to the bustling urban hills of Kampala, the dusty Atlantic beaches of Congo, and the flat suburbs of Denmark.
But adventure came at a price. Away from her career, raising children between international moves, Catriona lost her sense of direction. Alongside amazing travel, enriching new friendships, and unimagined opportunities, came family separation, an emergency birth, a political lockdown, and endless culture shock.
Lost in mental health struggles, she became a foreigner in her own home, and fumbled for a sense of purpose. But life on the move meant she had to confront her core belief about what it means to be home. And just when Catriona thought she had it all figured out, along came a global pandemic.
With lovely prose and deft craft, Catriona Turner brings the reader with her not just to fascinating locations around the world, but through her equally compelling inner journey. Don’t miss this memoir of a woman coming home to herself.
International bestseller Rachael Herron
I love Nest! Catriona is an exceptional writer, and a lot of readers will gain comfort from this book. I can’t wait for my friends to read it!
Keri Bloomfield, author of ‘Nothing Like a Dane’
For a signed, personalised paperback copy of Nest, simply email me catriona@thefrustratednester.com with your address. I’ll get back to you to arrange payment of £14 (UK) or £16 (EU) and get your book in the post!
You can ask for Nest at your local bookshop or library, or order your ebook or paperback from one of these retailers:
Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon FR | Amazon DE | Waterstones | Blackwells | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Nook | Apple Books | Indigo | Booktopia
Anywhere else: search ‘Nest Catriona Turner’ and it should be there.
More to read below, or head to the About page
Explore the blog:
How to finish what you started
My word for 2023 worked out pretty well, although I never got around to sharing it until now: FRUITION I was determined that this year I’d bring into the world the tangible result of more than three years of writing. This year, I brought my mindset into alignment with that goal and became an author,…
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Why leave all this? Our repatriation story begins…
A family member visiting us in late spring was incredulous. ‘But why would you leave all this? For Aberdeen?’ By All This they meant the leafy suburbs of western Paris, with the city of lights just a twenty-minute train journey away, a spacious house and garden within walking distance of a prestigious, cosy school, all…
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Thank you Wayne
I’ve just logged off from the livestream of the memorial service for the writer Wayne Milstead, who died suddenly last month. Wayne and his husband Aaron ran Circle of Missé, the writing retreat. I’m sharing here what I wrote in an email the day I heard the shocking news. It was in 2015, when we…
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The Certainty of Granite
This phrase, ‘The Certainty of Granite’ is one that I’ve had knocking around for years, and it was the working title of my book before I settled on the one I have now. Instead, earlier this year I crafted this poem from various notes and journal entries. The ideas here don’t resonate in the same…
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The Art of Finding Home as an Expat
… The friendships I’ve made with people because we connect over performance, or books, or because we’ve worked on a passion project together, those have been important in a different way. Because they connect with a deeper, stronger part of my identity, one that is a constant, regardless of circumstance. It’s connecting with that sense…
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Paris Sketch: Monet at l’Orangerie
I wrote this during a moment of reflection in front of Monet’s famous Water Lilies, and it’s only lightly edited here. Scroll down for more information about the gallery. It’s hard to resist people watching instead. Just two elliptical galleries, no hurry, no trying to take in every painting and learn the significance of what’s…
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Catriona Turner Books & Blog 