Samantha Harvey, who has won the UK’s top fiction award, the Booker prize, for her novel Orbital, has created a new genre: nature writing about space.
“I see it as a kind of space pastoral,” Harvey told the New Scientist podcast earlier in the year. “I wanted to see what you could do with words in a painterly way to try to conjure up that rapturous, joyful, extraordinary and also now somewhat grief-stricken view of the Earth.”
Orbital takes place over 24 hours on the International Space Station (ISS). There are six…
He lost both his grandparents in a short space of time and the pressures of a professional sporting environment made matters worse.
The Welsh Rugby Union said transitions and exits from the game could be turbulent, and they were focused on working on how players were supported through them.
Morgan, a former Wales under-20s player, who also turned out for his hometown club Bridgend, saw his short-lived professional career hampered by injuries.
Rugby used to be an outlet, but he said injuries and pressures of the sport intensified the grief he was experiencing.
Mental health in rugby ‘going in right direction’
‘’A lot of the negatives [in mental health] were leading back to rugby and the impact that was having,” he told BBC Wales Live.
“Especially the injuries and the pressures of being in a professional environment.
‘’I definitely didn’t feel as if there was a lot of support around this sort of injured group within rugby.
‘’I didn’t feel as if I could say anything because I was letting down teammates, coaches and end of the day, I still needed to get a contract.’’
This sense of isolation only increased after both his grandparents died within a short space of time.
‘’It started off like sort of anxiety,” he added.
“My heart would start racing and I’d get shortness of breath.’’
He said he became unable to cope and considered taking his life, saying: “I didn’t really feel anything, I just felt empty.”
Morgan said he received great support from his club, Swansea-based Ospreys, after opening up.
‘’I can’t fault the club, they were amazing,’’ he said. ‘’They gave me the time and the space I needed and the opportunity to go back if I wanted to take it.’’
But he is clear he doesn’t see himself returning to the professional game, adding: “People ask me now, ‘do you want to get back into rugby?’
‘’I’ve had the opportunity to get back in and I’ve said no, every time. I’d rather be happy than have all those benefits of being a professional rugby player.’’
He now manages a gym and works as a fitness coach, and hopes to see more support put in place for players.
“It’s putting a space for those conversations to take place and the people of power within rugby saying ‘you’re struggling, what can we do to help?’
‘’It’s the culture and understanding the individual and what they need.’’
Fellow Ospreys player Lloyd Ashley (left), is also working to change the way that professional rugby teams and players approach mental health
Another former Ospreys player, Lloyd Ashley, has been appointed lead for mental health and wellbeing by trade body the Welsh Rugby Players Association.
‘’Just generally as a society we need to find it easier to check in on each other,” he said.
Ashley hopes lessons learnt in rugby will filter through to other sports and also general society.
‘’The fact that we don’t just say when somebody says to us ‘how are you?’, we don’t just go, ‘yeah good, you?’, without even thinking about it,” he said.
‘’I hope that trickles into everybody’s lives because it’s important that we have spaces where we feel safe enough to be honest.”
International player Dan Lydiate believes things have changed for the better since his debut for Wales in 2009.
‘’I think we’re talking about mental health more,” said the 36-year-old Grand Slam winner. “There’s more of an awareness of what’s going on in people’s lives which is a positive move.’’
After his father died two years ago, he said rugby was a lifeline.
‘’The only thing that was normal for me was to just get back into rugby and play the following week,” he added.
‘’I miss him now. Where I jump in the car, first thing I’d do, I’d pick up the phone and ring him on my way back.
‘’For all my career, until two years ago, that’s what we did every day.’’
He can understand why players struggle.
‘’In rugby, people see the highs but they don’t see the lows,’’ he said.
‘’They don’t see when you’re battered and bruised and laid up in a hospital bed and struggling to put a pair of pants on because you’ve broken bones and stuff like that.
‘’It’s not all smiles on faces. It is a tough career on the body and the mind.’’
Fellow Wales international and Dragons teammate Shane Lewis-Hughes, 27, believes conversations around mental health should be happening day-to-day.
‘’I think as a man, especially in a sporting environment, it’s almost like sometimes you bury your problems and you think they’re going to stay away but they don’t,” he said.
Dan Lydiate, who now plays for the Dragons in Newport, won 72 caps for Wales and also played for the British & Irish Lions
In a statement, the WRU said: “It is always difficult to hear of problems experienced by individuals from within the rugby family and, whilst our hearts go out to anyone who is struggling or has struggled in this area, we are also extremely grateful to and encouraging of the players who are bravely speaking out on this subject.”
It added that clinical psychologist Dr Dale Thomas worked with the two national teams and the Welsh Rugby Players Association.
“With over 300 member clubs and districts, Welsh rugby is a pervasive and positive force in this area throughout the country, with our clubs serving as hubs and gathering places for all those involved to share problems and help each other,” it added.
The statement said the WRU is “very proud” of its proactive approach through the community game, promoting the importance of all participants looking after themselves both physically and mentally.
If you have been affected to issues in this story, you can contact the BBC Action Line.
MPs have backed plans to get rid of all hereditary peers from the House of Lords.
A bill making its way through Parliament would abolish the 92 seats reserved for peers who inherit their titles through their families.
MPs voted for the government proposals by 435 votes to 73. The bill will now go to the Lords, where it is expected to face tough opposition.
The Conservatives opposed the plans, with shadow Cabinet Office minister Alex Burghart claiming the government was “seeking to remove established scrutineers in order to replace them with Labour appointees”.
But during a debate in the Commons, some MPs also called for the government to go further.
Conservative Sir Gavin Williamson put forward proposals for Church of England bishops to be removed from the Lords but these were rejected by MPs.
He argued it was “fundamentally unfair” for a block of clerics to “have a right and a say over our legislation”.
“For me, as someone who is an Anglican, I cannot see why I have a greater right for greater representation than my children who are Catholics,” he said.
He added that the 26 bishops in the Lords only come from England and are “probably not reflective of today’s world”.
SNP MP Pete Wishart said the unelected House of Lords should be abolished completely, adding that “if you represent the people, you should be voted by the people”.
He told the Commons the government’s proposals were “pathetic” and “should have been done centuries ago”.
As well as promising to bring about “immediate modernisation” to the Lords by abolishing hereditary peers, Labour’s general election manifesto pledged to introduce a mandatory retirement age of 80 for members of the upper house.
It also said the party was committed to replacing the House of Lords with “an alternative second chamber that is more representative of the regions and nations”.
But these changes are not included in the bill and the government has not set out a timeline for when they will be delivered.
Defending the government’s approach, Cabinet Office minister Ellie Reeves said previous attempts to reform the Lords “all in one go” had failed and the government wanted to see “immediate reform”.
She added that the government would then consult on how to deliver its other manifesto commitments on the House of Lords.
Reeves said the government “values the good work done by hereditary peers” but the bill was “a matter of principle”.
“In the 21st Century it cannot be right for there to be places in our legislature reserved for those born into certain families,” she told the Commons.
Meanwhile, peers were also taking part in their own debate on the issue of Lords reform.
Conservative peer Lord True was among those to criticise the government’s plans.
The shadow leader of the House of Lords argued the aim of the bill was “partisan” removing “88 peers who do not align themselves with Labour and four who do”.
He also said the move would cause “great hurt”.
“The execution will have to be done at close quarters, brushing shoulders in the lobbies as we go to vote for the removal of much-respected colleagues.”
Fellow Conservative peer and former cabinet minister Lord Forsyth of Drumlean accused Labour of “a disgraceful piece of political gerrymandering” aimed at “weakening the scrutiny” of the government.
“If the party opposite continues with this act of constitutional vandalism they ain’t seen nothing yet,” he warned.
The job of the House of Lords is to scrutinise the work of government and recommend changes to proposed legislation.
Most peers are appointed by the monarch on the prime minister’s advice.
The majority of hereditary peers were abolished in 1999 under the last Labour government, leaving only 92 in a compromise deal with the Conservatives.
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