Christmas is coming and the corn-fed, hand-reared goose is getting fat. Up and down the ‘shires Smug Mothers are glowing with festive pride as they prepare for family celebrations Kirstie Allsop would be proud of. But Smug Motherhood doesn’t come naturally to us all, and if you’re struggling to keep up with the Bingham-Joneses, I’ve […]
Eating out
I took the children out for lunch the other day, and caught the tiniest glimpse of someone so like my father my breath caught in my chest. I used to love having meals out with my parents. It didn’t happen all the time, which made it all the more exciting, but at birthdays and on […]
Ten things not to say to a writer
1. Wow, you’ve got a publishing deal! I bet you’re raking in the cash now. Yes, absolutely. In fact I’m struggling to type this, so bejewelled are my fingers. 2. Will you dedicate your book to me? I’ve only met you about three times. I don’t even like you. Why on earth would I dedicate […]
The Book With No Name
I am writing the Book With No Name. It will have one, I hope, at some point between now and the moment it hits the shelves, but for now it is the Book With No Name. I finished it last year, and the last twelve months have been mostly spent writing it all over again. […]
Pillow talk
Pillow talk last night went something like this: Me: what sort of gun could I get hold of, if I really wanted to? Husband (who knows about such things): that depends where you were and who you knew. Me: No underworld connections. Just a normal, middle-class person, in a normal middle-class town. Him: Probably […]
New mothers to be offered £200 if they breastfeed for six months
A pilot scheme in South Yorkshire and Derbyshire – an area with extremely low breastfeeding numbers – will offer new mothers High Street vouchers to the value of £200 if they breastfeed for six months. Project leader Dr Clare Relton believes such remuneration is a way of ‘acknowledging the value of breastfeeding’, but her views seem […]