JOHANNA PHILIP

Meet Johanna

My family always travelled, often with an old Volvo packed to the limit, driving through Europe to some remote mountain village on Corsica where my parents had rented a small, but charming cottage. Or any other wild part of Europe where no other tourists went and you could live like the locals for a couple of joyful summer weeks.

By the age of 14, I started to travel by myself to a couple of horse-breeding farms in England, discovering the freedom in early morning rides up in the mountains between the UK and Wales.

Growing up with this feeling of possibility and adventure changed something, so I never stopped travelling.

Also, when you travel around a lot and meet other travellers, you realise that you create your own story every day. It’s a sort of meta-universe, where you can change your persona at anytime.

This insight, together with years of studying film history, writing, myths, and hero archetypes, made me realise that today, more than any time, the one who tells the stories runs the world.

Then, when I thought I would have my breakthrough, instead life threw me a curved ball and I got very ill and had several injuries. But as a strange payback, when the odds were almost impossible, I still believed I could make it. Because that’s what my heroes in books and films had done forever.

So all my studies and constant hunger for knowledge came back to save me. Because all those stories offered an insane belief that even if it had never been done before, that wild idea that came to mind, when there was no way out, was of course the solution.

More about my against-all-odds and survival story in the upcoming one-woman show and book “You Go to War to Win.”

Photo above of me by Parthenon temple at Acropolis, Athens, where I determinedly climbed up, despite a couple of injuries, not 100% healed and 40 degrees hot.

“The Temple of Athena” was used both as a treasure house and for storing important documents. As a writer, I’m truly inspired by these historic places, where time always seems to be standing still, but the stories keep on living forever.

Travelling the Scottish Highlands

Also, when you travel around a lot and meet other travellers, you realise that you create your own story every day. It’s a sort of meta-universe, where you can invent another persona every day.

This insight, together with years of studying film history, writing, myths, and hero archetypes, made me realise that today, more than any time, he who tells the stories runs the world.

Then, when I thought I would have my breakthrough, instead, life threw me a curved ball and I got very ill and had several injuries. But as a strange payback, when the odds were almost impossible, I still believed I could make it. Because that’s what my heroes in books and films had done forever.

So all my studies and constant hunger for knowledge came back to save me. Because all those stories offered an insane belief that even if it had never been done before, that wild idea that came to mind, when there was no way out, was, of course, the solution.

More about my against-all-odds and survival story in the upcoming one-woman show and book “You Go to War to Win.”

Photo of me by Parthenon temple at Acropolis, Athens, where I determinedly climbed up last summer, despite a couple of injuries, not 100% healed and 40 degrees hot.

“The Temple of Athena” was used both as a treasure house and for storing important documents. As a writer, I’m truly inspired by these historic places, where time always seems to be standing still, but the stories keep on living forever.

Personality type:

Creator and visionary

Fav hobby:

Stand up and jazz clubs

Best trip:

Travelling the Scottish Highlands

Guilty pleasure:​

Night-time shopping & binge-watching TV series

Pizza or pasta?​​

Both!

This makes me laugh: ​

When life doesn’t follow the script.

City or prefer quiet:​

50/50

Dislike:

Sorting through all my “I’m just gonna write this little thing” post its.

Surprising talent:​

Very musical!

"When you’ve traveled everywhere, you can write about anything and make it interesting, cause the reward of constant motion is the voice of the future"