Stroud poet and author Laura Connochie has launched her fourth book, a spiritual memoir called “Ayahuasca Ate Me for Breakfast & Other Stories”, at a private event at Lansdown Gallery in Stroud.
The new book is the sequel to her first memoir, “What the Mushrooms Told Me”, which was published in 2024. Attendees at the launch included Tom Sears, the Stroud-based designer and illustrator who created the colourful front covers for both books.
Connochie’s newest memoir details her inner journeys with the Amazonian plant medicine ayahuasca and other psychedelic medicines in a therapeutic context. As a writer searching for a migraine cure, Connochie documented her journeys as a way of integrating these profound and complex experiences, gradually realising she was writing a sequel to WTMTM. Each chapter describes plant medicine ceremonies from a first-person standpoint and gives insights into the physical, emotional and spiritual rollercoaster rides that many of these experiences became. While the book includes profound moments, Connochie writes with the same sense of humour deployed in her first memoir, keeping the narrative concise and readable while never taking herself too seriously.
Speaking about the launch of her second memoir, Connochie said: “Getting my Stroud friends together for the launch at Lansdown was a hugely special moment and I appreciate the support and encouragement I’ve received in writing and sharing these unusual and incredibly personal stories. I always knew WTMTM would have a sequel and now it’s been ‘released into the wild’ for more people to learn from these plant teachers. As these medicines are becoming better known, I wanted to describe what it can be like when you embark on a psychedelic journey and just how much you can find out about yourself in the process.”
What the Mushrooms Told Me and Ayahuasca Ate Me for Breakfast & Other Stories are both available on Amazon in paperback and on Kindle. Connochie has also previously published two poetry collections on Amazon, No Money in Poetry and Bread-and-Butter Beings. If you’d like signed copies of any of her books, please contact her directly on LinkedIn at Laura Connochie.
