If you had asked me last year how long I would like to sleep for, I’d have said 100 years. — Since having children, my fantasy has been to have a night alone in a hotel. “With someone?” friends would ask, hopeful of gossip. But my answer was always no, just me, alone, asleep and uninterruptible. Sleep is of a premium in my house, which is no surprise given that I…

The books I liked as a kid were old even by the time I read them, so it’s understandable they have no interest — One of the things you have to get your head around as a parent is that your child’s experience of childhood is theirs, not yours. You may want to share with them the things that you enjoyed, but you must do so in the knowledge that this may not be…

When it is your job to give your opinion, and help others form theirs, you start to see things as absolutes. Here’s how to avoid this. — Some years ago I used to regularly write columns for newspapers in the UK, and as I am also a lecturer in journalism at Goldsmiths, University of London, I would often find myself talking to students about opinion writing, and analysing my own trade. …

Winning the prize is great, but that is not the only thing to be gained — I love entering competitions and always have. Although the prize for one that I entered in my twenties was a four month Round the World trip travelling business class with a weekly newspaper column about my trip, I maintain that the most exciting competition I have ever won was a…

If it doesn’t make sense to you, it won’t make sense to readers — One of my greatest lessons in editing happened years ago when I was working for a small think tank in the UK, the Fabian Society, editing their publications. We had agreed to publish a piece by the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and I was going through it before publication…

Any object can spark a feature idea if you teach your brain to ask the right questions One of the things I teach journalism students in my job as a lecturer at Goldsmiths College, University of London, is that anything can be an inspiration for a feature. While getting a…

You meet so many people when you become a parent, but how do you know which ones will become the friends you want to keep? — When you have a baby in non-pandemic times, the blur of people you meet can be overwhelming. Once you have dived into the world of parenting groups and playgroups, it’s like Freshers’ Week at university — you talk to everyone to begin with and then spend the next few years…

You just need one, to carry you through to the next day — Before I had kids I had an image of myself post kids, as a wise mama, giving out advice to friends who were a few years behind me in starting their families. But difficulties conceiving our first meant that by the time she was born most of my university friends…

We need suggestions of books for clever but tired women — I have three kids — the youngest is ten — and after each child it has taken me ages to get back my reading mojo. I was so tired and all consumed by the babies, none of whom slept well, that despite having studied English Literature, the idea of starting…