It’s easy to dream of building a whole new life, but it’s quite another to actually do it. Jamie Beck is a woman who knows - the American artist, photographer and author swapped her high-flying career as a fashion photographer in New York to live simply and slowly in Provence.

Since 2016, Jamie has amassed a following of over 400,000 people for her beautiful portrayals of life in the South of France. In the shade of the Chateau de Mille, looking over idyllic rose gardens, we meet Jamie after she has been gathering flowers for one of her shoots.

Here, she tells us about changing her life in the pursuit of art, how gardens, flowers and nature never fail to inspire her practice and how it really feels to start your life again.

You can enjoy Jamie’s sumptuous original artwork on her website jamiebeck.co, where you can also sign up to her free weekly newsletter, Sunday Flowers. Her New York Times bestsellers, An American in Provence, and its follow-up, The Flowers of Provence are out now.

This podcast is inspired by Alice's book, Why Women Grow: Stories of Soil, Sisterhood and Survival, which is available in all good bookshops. We’ve also been photographing our guests and their gardens and you can see the beautiful images captured by Sophie Epton on Alice's website and instagram account @⁠⁠alicevincentwrites⁠⁠.

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