When a woman explained that she was struggling to be both a present mother and a productive worker, Annie Ridout was reminded of a time when she felt exactly this. Here’s how she adjusted the balance to make it better…
writer
Work Life
Taking maternity leave as a freelance mum is tricky. Government maternity pay is low, and you’ll be stepping away from the freelance career you’ve been building… will it still be there when you return? Here are Annie Ridout’s thoughts on it all…
Work Life
“Nora Ephron, the famous screenwriter, once said – ‘When you slip on a banana peel, people laugh at you. But when you tell people you slipped on a banana peel, it’s your laugh.’” Writer and editor Anniki Sommerville shares five excellent writing tips to help get you started…
Family
Her first storybook – Parrots Don’t Live in the City! – launched this summer. We talk to full time mum and debut children’s book author Lucy Reynolds about her own childhood, creativity and reading with her eight-month-old son…
Work Life
Debut author Caroline England was introduced to “raw, human emotion” while working as a solicitor. “Whether dealing with crime, divorce or professional negligence, a solicitor is like a counsellor,” she says. It was this that inspired her novel Beneath the Skin – out tomorrow…
Work Life
She turned her hand to novel-writing while at home with two young sons – and soon became successful enough to quit the day job. Now, Kat French is the sole earner, and her husband looks after the children and housework…
Work Life
“I work in a log cabin (really just a glorified shed) in the garden. That’s great because the commute is approximately ten seconds.” Bestselling author and dad-of-two Mark Sennen on his writing life in Devon and being an involved father…
Work Life
She changed the face of children’s literature by writing books with controversial themes: adoption, divorce, mental illness. We ask Dame Jacqueline Wilson – the author of Tracy Beaker – about mornings, her in-house library and the first time she called herself a writer…
Family
For the mothers (and fathers) who’ve found a sudden rise in productivity levels since kids came along, Annie Ridout has it all worked it. Here’s why you are a whole lot more productive now than you were pre-children…
Work Life
“Mad morning rush feeding and dropping off my daughter. Meetings where I noticed yoghurt stains on my carefully planned ‘dress to impress’ outfit. The exhausting bedtime routine.” Tracy Buchanan’s account of becoming an author, while in the depths of new motherhood…