Events continue for INTO BEING with the following throughout 2026, and I’ll add more as they come in.
| On Sunday 22nd Feb I’ll be appearing at the Philosophy Salon with Chloe Hadjimatheou who exposed The Salt Path Scandal in the Observer last year, to discuss why truth matters. We will be in discussion with Julian Baggini – book here |
| On Monday 23rd Feb I am teaching memoir in person at Bristol’s The Square club in collaboration with How You Find Your Voice. Come along, it would be lovely to see you. Book here |
| On Monday 9th March I will be on a memoir discussion panel at the Farnham Literary Festival. When Truth is More Gripping Than Fiction – you can find out more about it here. |
| On Thursday 23rd April, I will be on a panel with author Richard Beard at Blackwells, Oxford. You can book tickets here |
| I am teaching a number of Arvon courses this year. One in April with poet Jaqueline Saphra which is sold out, another in June which is online and an evening course, with Miranda Doyle, which you can still book. Details here |
| I am teaching an Arvon course at Totleigh Barton in September – details to follow. |
| On Thursday 28th May I will be teaching a memoir workshop at Hay Festival – 5.30-8pm. Details to follow. |
| On Sunday 12th July I will be on a panel with Harriet Derioz at the Frome Festival – details to follow. |
Publicity for INTO BEING, autumn 2025
Events are coming in for INTO BEING and I’ll start to list them here and add to them as we go along. But if you’d like to attend any of the following, please make a note in your diary for now.
| INTO BEING is published on 7th October and, to celebrate, I’ll be doing an event at Daunt Notting Hill with Joanna Pocock, whose memoir Surrender is published by Fitzcarraldo Editions. The event will be chaired by Marina Benjamin. Daunt Notting Hill – 21 Kensington Park Road, London, W11 2EU. |
| On the 9th October, I will be in conversation with Julia Bell at Birkbeck, University of London. Birkbeck is where I studied for my doctorate, which was how INTO BEING started life so I am really excited to be celebrating its publication here. Birkbeck is in Fitzrovia, London. Venue to be confirmed. |
| On Monday 13th October, I will be in conversation with The Bookseller Nonfiction editor, Caroline Sanderson, at Cheltenham Literary Festival. Caroline is also author of memoir, Listen with Father, which is published in July. The event is happening at 4pm at Cheltenham Town Hall. |
| On Wednesday 15th October at 7.30pm, I will be in conversation with author Anna Wilson at The Edge of the World bookshop, in Penzance. |
| We will have our Bristol launch at Gloucester Road Books on Thursday 16th October. This will be a discussion based event. Chair to be confirmed. You can also pre-order signed and dedicated copies of INTO BEING from Gloucester Road Books. |
| On the 22nd October, I’ll be running a workshop at In@48 in London. If you’d like to learn about how to write memoir, come along. |
| On the 29th October I’ll be doing an event with author Caro Giles up in Durham, at Collected Books. Caro is publishing her second memoir, Unschooled, with Little Toller and so we’ll be in discussion about both books. |
| On 11th November I will be doing an event with Jenn Ashworth at Blackwells, Oxford. 48-51 Broad Street, Oxford. Jenn publishes her memoir, A Parallel Path this summer. |
| For a memoir workshop come along to Clifton Literary Festival on 14th November |
| And on 19th November, I am doing a workshop at Folkestone Book Festival. |
20th September 2023
Very exciting new news to announce – I have a new book commission! This one is a craft book on memoir, which will be both trade and academic, called INTO BEING: the Radical Craft of Memoir and its Power to Transform and will be published by Manchester University Press in 2025. It will be a book that is all about memoir and its capacity to heal, both a book of theory and of practice, perfect for those of you who want to learn more about memoir as a form, and also perhaps to write it.
19th April 2022
It’s been a month since Sins was published and a lot has happened! For a while I was getting enquiries every day, and then the reader’s responses started to come in – which has been the best part from me. Hearing how others are interpreting the book.
This Saturday just passed an interview was posted on Youtube, which I did with Talk Beliefs. It kind of tells a potted history of my dad’s life as a narcissist and his involvement with the Rajneesh cult, with some lovely images spliced through it. It has already had nearly 3,000 views!
And on Tuesday 17th May, I’ll be doing an event with Clover Stroud at my local bookshop, Gloucester Road Books. It will be on writing memoir, and the ethics of writing about family members – Clover had her third memoir published in March, The Red of My Blood. You can still buy tickets, here.
28th March 2022
So SINS was published on the 17th and it was amazing and busy, and then I collapsed. Not with Covid amazingly, but just exhaustion.
I’ve been sitting back watching the reviews come in. It was BOOK OF THE DAY in Saturday’s Guardian. And it was BOOK OF THE WEEK in the Daily Mail.
So pretty good reception.
I recorded a Table Talk podcast episode with the Spectator last week, which was fun – key life memories through food – and I seem to be doing quite a few podcasts on cults. All fun though.
Our local bookshop is planning an event with me and Clover Stroud, all about the process of writing memoir, both good and bad.
14th March 2022
This actually is publication week. There are not many times I’ll be able to say that. SINS OF MY FATHER will be published on Thursday, 17th.
Last week I had a gorgeous review in The Spectator. I loved how the reviewer, Juliet Nicolson really understood my book, and the last paragraph particularly made me cry.
There was also a massive piece in the Telegraph Magazine on Saturday. It was an interview, which I found a little odd – the experience odd – as it wasn’t focused on the book itself, but more my life. But I have to get used to this kind of thing.
My books have arrived in bookshops and this weekend we will be celebrating the launch of SINS OF MY FATHER in London and Bristol.
11th February 2022
All this news is going to be retrospective as my daughter has been ill and I’ve not had time to add to this until now.
Last Monday I did my first LIVE READING for Sins at the Social in London, with some brilliant company, Tanya Shadrick, Ali Millar, David Whitehouse and Donna McLean, particularly fun because I used to hang out at the Social in the early 00s.
Then on Wednesday I was visited by a Telegraph journalist for my first interview, which was both reassuring – because she was so nice – and intensely strange.
And I also had my first review, and it was brilliant. You can read it here:
24th January 2022
Lots of exciting things starting to happen now that we have crossed over into the year of publication! I have been commissioned to write a piece for RED magazine about what it was like for me growing up, the child of someone who joined a cult.
I also will be recording a reading for Damien Barr’s Literary Salon podcast, to feature near to publication date, 17th March.
And lastly, notes from journalists are coming in, that I will be reviewed in various publications. The Guardian being one of them.
Last week a bunch of us Orion authors went along to a studio to pitch our books to a camera, which was really nervewracking, but the video I am told will go out to book bloggers and influencers sometime this week. Gasp.
And this quote was a lovely one that came in a couple of weeks ago from Viv Groskop.
14th December 2021
Last week SINS OF MY FATHER made it into the Bookseller’s Editor’s Choice for Nonfiction titles published in March, alongside Amy Liptrot and Margaret Atwood! I was thrilled to hear this news on Friday morning. Thank you Caroline Sanderson.
The day before, on Thursday, my new Aeon essay was published, ‘Idealising the Predator’, and you can read it here. I was nervous about having this piece out there, but it feels really relevant right now, particularly during the Ghislaine Maxwell trial and, I hope, more awareness of how rife grooming and sexual abuse of minors was and still is. It’s a topic that people feel uncomfortable about, but that needs more air time.
4th December 2021
What a busy week I’ve had, attending an author event at the Barbican for Orion authors, published, and to be published, next year. It was also a celebration for Orion after they were awarded Publisher of the Year in 2021 by British Book Awards. The lovely Jenny Lord, my editor, was there holding a copy of my proofs, and I felt very pleased to be in such good hands.
SINS OF MY FATHER has now made it out into the world as a proof, and I am beginning to get some feedback from those who have read it. It’s going to be an Editor’s Choice next week in the Bookseller, selected by Caroline Sanderson.
My new Aeon essay will be published this coming week, too. ‘Sex with Girls’ is about grooming and the adolescent girl, with specific reference to the condoning culture of the French intelligentsia elite in the 1970s and 1980s, as described in Vanessa Springora’s #MeToo memoir, Consent (2020). Apt timing for the ongoing Ghislaine Maxwell trial.
And here, below, is my new profile photograph.
This is where I’ll be keeping you up to date with any exciting book related news or events happening. I’ll also be telling you a bit about books I am currently reading.
It makes sense that I am standing in one of my most treasured places here, looking back from a gorgeous view.
6th October 2021
Some very exciting news is that A Wild and Precious Life is going to be published and distributed in the USA! Publication date is July 2022.
In terms of my own writing projects, SINS OF MY FATHER is now at final proofs stage, and we have our wonderful cover. The next step is to come up with a marketing plan, so this page should have some new exciting events or publications on it soon.
I have just finished final edit on a new essay for Aeon magazine, which is on grooming and the adolescent girl, specifically looking at the condoning culture of the French intelligentsia elite, Vanessa Springora writes about in her #MeToo memoir, Consent.
Here are some of the books I’ve read in the last couple of weeks. Chauvo-Feminism by Sam Mills is an extended essay, an intelligent study on a modern day post #MeToo relationship, published by Indigo. The Instant, by Amy Liptrot, and About a Son, by David Whitehouse, are both in proof form. Both will be breakout books for the start of the new year.