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Read about my journey into becoming a creative freelancer, interviews and reviews with great authors, and advice on writing and creative living.

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May 27, 2020
5 min

Celebrating Amazing People #4

This post is inspired by the German astronomer Caroline Herschel. A breathing gap in half term so this one is a little more timely than the others! Something about her story created a pompous voice in my head that narrated her experience, which felt more suitable than reimagining her thoughts. If you have any suggestions for people I could use to inspire my fiction please let me know in the comments! Minding The Heavens Just imagine, they said; someone of that stature looking

May 17, 2020
3 min

Celebrating Amazing People #3

Ok, the gap between two and three is all you need to know about coping with online teaching and toddler management during lockdown! Better late than never. This one is inspired by the rather brilliant Simone Segouin (codename Nicole Minet. I wish I had a codename) who joined the French resistance at 17. She received an International Award from the British charity Soldiering On in 2017, to honour her part in the war. She still lives in an old people’s home in Chartres. Why Giv

Apr 5, 2020
5 min

Celebrating Amazing People #2

Much more lighthearted and unusual this week. I was reading the introduction to Cathy Newman’s book Bloody Brilliant Women and I came across an nun from the 10th century who wore golden gowns and argued with the male clergy. I loved the idea of a celebrity culture existing back then around kings and bishops, and thought she was just too interesting not to delve into a little more. Hope you enjoy it. Pride Comes in Many Guises The two thralls slopped through the mud. After a h

Jun 7, 2019
3 min

Becoming a Mum Made Me More Supportive of Abortion

I am woman who has a baby. She was wanted, she is loved, but it has been such hard work. There have been times that I have spiralled into despair over how much my life has changed, how tired I am. I spent a lot of time preparing and planning to have her, and even then it’s been tough. She’s wonderful, but no-one should be forced to do something this hard if they don’t want to. If you are not financially, emotionally or mentally prepared, even a little bit, to have a baby, you

Aug 12, 2018
4 min

Recovery

This week, I’ve made several journeys. Once into London to see some friends, once to a local town for some shopping, and once to Paris. While that is hardly a new experience for me, these trips were different: I did them by myself. For those who’ve been following my adventures, a brief jaunt on a few trains and the underground hardly seems adventurous. The thing is, all this time, there was someone else to carry the extra weight. Just the two of us on the train As we would be

Jul 1, 2018
6 min

Winding Down

This week marked an important event – we booked the very last accommodation we’ll need until we leave. No more trawling through listings every few days, no more comparing prices and amenities and weighing up the best option. Looking back over our trip, we’ve stayed in eighteen AirBnbs and twelve hotels. That’s quite a lot of moving around! The other significant difference from this point on is that we’ll be staying in the same place for five days, and then an entire week. Up

Jun 17, 2018
7 min

Dressing Up, Dressing Down

This week we found ourselves back in civilisation, as Mexico City was the first stopping point for our Mexican adventure. It’s the biggest city we’ve been to since Tokyo, back in the chill of February. While most of our travels seem to have revolved around countryside, national parks and beaches, cities are probably the only place that I feel self conscious about what I’m wearing. A combination of skinny jeans and hiking shoes just doesn’t scream urban chic, and the frequent

Apr 21, 2018
4 min

Stuff for YOU on the Road

I could have called this ‘Mummy Treats’ or some such nonsense, but frankly I think there are times when it is great to not consider yourself a mum, and just think about the things you want to make you feel good. After all, it’s all very well if your little darling is all set for a day at the beach but it’s far less fun if you feel like your hair is a fuzzy monstrosity and your skin resembles some of the leathery lizards you encounter in your tropical travels. So, let’s ditch

Feb 25, 2018
3 min

Can You See Yourself in History?

When we visit places, we always look to the past. Seek out the origins to better understand the culture and the town that sits there now. Certain places wear their history more openly than others. With the clustering of temples on every corner, the profusion of old-fashioned wooden buildings and streets thronged with people wearing kimonos, Kyoto certainly flaunts its antiquity. The golden pavilion in Kyoto While some people are a little disappointed with the parts that are b

Aug 11, 2017
4 min

Is Borrowing from Mythology Cheating?

When I was a student at University, I took a composition course. Bashing away at the keys of a piano in a quiet practice room (it was 11pm, I had homework due the following day), the impossibility of creating anything genuinely ‘new’ suddenly struck me. There they were, 8 little keys, with black ones in between. Surely there were only a certain number of combinations you could create with this limited palate? Listening to modern pop music (yes, I’m old) it would appear I was

Jul 17, 2017
2 min

Women Are Not A Minority

It’s a pretty important week for females and fantasy. The BBC have announced that the next Dr. Who is going to be a woman. For many, this is a very welcome change. For far too long, this genre has been almost completely dominated by white men. From Superman to Wolverine, Dr Who to Thor, the faces that are seen as saviours and heroes are all too often a variation on a theme, with hair colour and beard being the only factor of difference. With the last companion being black and

Jul 10, 2017
3 min

Why I’m Only Reading Books by Women

I’m trying to remember the last time I read a book by a man. Or, for that matter, the last time I watched something that didn’t have a female character in a dominant role. It seems that, perhaps unconsciously at first, I’m moving away from things created by men, or at least things that have a dominant male perspective. That might seem pretty reductive, to some. Surely only viewing the world through one lens is restrictive, no matter which one you choose? That would be true, i

May 26, 2017
5 min

Laughing About Equality

For many, The Guilty Feminist is not ‘new’ news. With over thirteen thousand followers on Twitter and almost fifty episodes, it’s fair to say that a lot of people are already onto it. It’s covered everything from activism to ethical clothing, using humour to discuss wide-ranging and often thorny feminist issues. Having found out about it a little late, I very quickly listened to all the back episodes and, last week, found myself at the fundraiser for the Women’s Equality Part

May 15, 2017
1 min

Short Story – Chrysalis

You can see my latest short story in Pennyzine magazine here. Beautiful illustration by Sophie Page. #writing #women #description #prose #literature #creativity #shortstory

Apr 30, 2017
4 min

Power – Gender and Naomi Alderman’s Novel

In terms of power and control, it’s a scary time. Unity and strength seem to be giving way to individual gripes and complaints, people turned against each other to shout blame for the lives they’re not happy with. Unstable times lead to unlikely heroes. People currently in power are those that we wouldn’t have dreamed of electing or giving a voice to. Suddenly, a victory for a abusive right-wing president seems the ‘popular’ choice. Keeping the current UK government, the cham

Jan 26, 2017
5 min

Femspreading – Making Space For Women

Genderspecs – changing gendered perspectives, one blog at a time. It’s always a joyous moment when I receive an email telling me that the next podcast episode of ‘The Guilty Feminist’ is out. This time the theme was ‘Taking Up Space,’ and how women don’t tend to do it quite as much as men. I’ve suffered from bad shoulders for years. Part of it is the curse of the writer/student I became in later life – carrying my laptop about on my back like a tortoise with a portable office

Oct 22, 2016
4 min

Hag-Seed – Book Review

A new book by Margaret Atwood! Very exciting. I went along to her talk at the Southbank Centre (proper fan moment) and heard her discuss the book, her life, and her work. She is one interesting lady. She also has good shoes (silver!). There’s something incredibly refreshing about listening to someone like her talk. Intelligent, yes, talented, yes, but there is something fundamentally captivating about a person who is just so interested and passionate about the world. With so

Oct 14, 2016
7 min

Short Story – The Fragrance of Blood

She lets the sun touch her through the window. Dips her head, past the dark line drawn on the table, sits her face into the sharp heat. Magnified warmth. It could be Ghana outside – thick orange dust, women piling yellow fruits. Amplify the squawk of a hedge-bird, it could be a gull – clawing its way into the sky, scissored feathers in glossy blue. She squints at the shaking strands of light shredded through the Volvic water bottle – a reflection of a swaggering pool, a shard

Oct 7, 2016
4 min

Y: The Last Man – Book Review

I know I’m massively behind the times in reading this, but as I’m currently working on a similar narrative, several people recommended this graphic novel as a good place to look at how a gender-imbalanced dystopia played out. Interesting ideas, some lessons learned, and a few pitfalls to avoid. On a day in 2002, a mystery virus simultaneously kills off every creature with a Y chromosome on the planet. Apart from one. Yorick (his parents liked Shakespeare) and his monkey Amper

Aug 19, 2016
4 min

Why I’m Not an Angry Feminist

Today I had the joy of experiencing a running buddy while out on the streets. As I ran past him, he came into step beside me, waving his arms and making silly high pitched noises. After which he collapsed in giggles, so amused by the sight of a woman running down the road. All of this was done in the sight of, not a crowd of jeering lads, but what I assume was his young daughter. I can only imagine the lessons she has learnt about the value of women through her eyes as she wa

Sarah Scribbles