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Land girls
First published Mslexia Spring 2014 We are a nation of gardeners. We love watching garden shows and read magazines, books and newspaper columns on everything from disease control to sustainable...
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Back to the future
First published Mslexia Winter 2012 Forget everything you ever thought about Science Fiction and Fantasy (SFF). Forget nerdy boys role playing space heroes or Goth girls dressing as elves or maidens at...
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Cooking the books
First published Mslexia Issue 57 spring 2013 Next time you open a cookbook take a moment to appreciate that the genre is one of the most complex in the market. Simply put, cookbooks are more than...
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How to be funny
First published Mslexia Issue 59 Blame it on the recession: blame it on the Condem government, but over the past three years there has been a resurgence in comic writing by women, especially in...
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The Price Ain’t Right
First published: ALCS News 18th February 2014 A few years ago, a literary agent of grand reputation was asked to speak at a trade conference in Wales. “What’s the fee?” she asked “There isn’t one,...
View ArticleKeep calm, and carry on writing: Clare Morrall interview
First published: The Independent on Sunday 23rd March 2014 Clare Morrall leaps up to greet me. “You probably don’t recognise me,” she says lunging for my hand, while I pretend I just hadn’t seen her....
View ArticleState of Independence
First published in Mslexia Winter 2013 When Kate Wilson set up children’s publisher Nosy Crow, it was not because corporate publishing had no openings for ambitious women. With a gold plated CV that...
View ArticleDorothy Koomson interview: On ‘The Ice Cream Girls’ and being one of...
First published in The Independent on Sunday 10th November 2013 Dorothy Koomson should have met Iain Banks. The late author would have saved her a lot of pain. Because though the bestselling writer and...
View ArticleEve Harris: Tension of a life without certainty
First published The Independent on Sunday 24th August 2013 I can tell when an interview is not going well. I feel like I am walking on ice in ballet pumps. No matter how hard I try, I slip around,...
View ArticleGrace McCleen: ‘Writing is really destructive to me’
First published in The Independent on Sunday 6th July 2013 Cormac McCarthy once said of writing: “Anything that doesn’t take years off your life and drive you to suicide hardly seems worth doing.” It...
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Why we need The Women’s Prize for Fiction
Last night A M Holmes’s May We Be Forgiven won the Women’s Prize for Fiction (formerly known as the Orange). In the run up to the prize we had the same old sneering criticism from certain quarters...
View ArticleLiesel Schwarz: A clockwork heroine
First published in The Independent on Sunday 17th February 2013 Arriving at her literary agency recently, the South Africa-born, London-based author Liesel Schwarz had one of those moments that debut...
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Advice: what agents want
Yesterday I taught my first Guardian Masterclass of the year on how to pitch your book. The next is on 23rd February (click Guardian Masterclass for details). A question students always ask is: what...
View ArticleAnnabel Pitcher: ‘Everyone screws up at some point …’
First published in The Independent on Sunday 6th January 2013 As literary near misses go, Annabel Pitcher’s is one of the more colourful: if it hadn’t been for the intervention of her husband, Jimmy...
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Books to look out for: Back to the future
First appeared in: Mslexia 56 winter 2012/13 Women have broken into the last bastion of macho writing, Science Fiction and Fantasy, and they are changing the market Forget everything you ever thought...
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Are Women Crime Writers Deadlier Than The Male?
This article first appeared in The Mail on Sunday I have spent the last few months saturated in the blood of young women. As I fall asleep I block out their screams. As I sit at my desk I avert my...
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Time Management: I don’t know how she does it
This article first appeared in Mslexia Autumn 2012 Finding time to write can be hard, especially when you have to fit it into already packed schedules. Danuta Kean marvels at how women writers get so...
View ArticlePiracy: The Big Rip Off
First published in the ALCS News August 2012 You have to hand it to the editors of Wikipedia – half of whom are under 28 – youthful rebellion never looked like this. By instigating a 24-hour blackout...
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Literary trends: Mermaids – Something fishy in the tale
This article first appeared in Mslexia, issue 53 Sea creatures are replacing vampires as the latest fantasy trend. Danuta Kean investigates A wave of mermaids and selkies threatens to wash away...
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Interview: Val McDermid –‘When someone dies, I want people to care’
This article first appeared in The Independent on Sunday You are walking alone down a dark street, the moon a sliver in the sky, when you hear footsteps tap, tap, tap behind you. How you react, claims...
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