Blog
Christmas is coming…
...and the goose is getting fat. As is the Christmas lurgy. Has it got you yet? It has me. In fact, last night I took two Night Nurse (my wonder drug) and slept through until 10.30am this morning. This is unheard of for me – I usually wake up at five. Suffice to say,...
Add-Ons
I am writing this from the tranquility of the Scottish Highlands after a crazy, busy week. On Monday evening, I was on BBC’s Panorama programme: Inside Britain’s Fertility Business which then, inevitably, resulted in lots of other things. Radio, newspapers, and more...
Kittens
When I give talks about my/the pursuit of motherhood, I often mention the value of fur babies although I’ve never actually had one. That is, until last week when two adorable balls of fluff arrived. In the lead up to them coming, I noticed I was getting stressed. I’ve...
The Fertility Show Take-Three
I’m on the 27 bus heading to Olympia. At 10.30am I’ll be giving a talk on the IVF Roller Coaster. A cliché, but like many clichés, true. This is the Fertility Show take-three for me, having spoken at it in 2014. 2015 and now 2016. I always have ambivalent feelings...
A Story of Love and Life
Other people’s pregnancy announcements are always going to hurt. It’s like I said in my film for Fertility Network UK about the ‘pain of never’: one of the things that infertility does to you is that you can never feel happy for someone when they announce they’re...
Hidden Faces
October is an important month for making babies. It culminates in National Fertility Awareness Week (Monday 31st October to Sunday 6th November) along with The Fertility Show - the biggest IVF trade fair in the UK - where I’ll be speaking for the third year running....
Australia Day
Today is my Australia Day. I know it’s not the 26th January, it’s the 21st of September so I hope my antipodean readers will forgive me. But today is my Australia Day because I want to tell you about two astonishing pieces of creative work by two Australian artists...
A Score Draw
Just over a week ago it was my Channelversary - the name that is fondly given to the day you took on the little strip of sea between England and France and won. Or should that be, the day the Channel let me beat her because she was always in control of the outcome not...
Topsy-Turvy
I was in the queue at the passport office this week (more about why in bit) and I noticed that the guy standing in front of me had written on his form for a replacement: Girlfriend (now ex) cut my passport in half because she didn’t want me to go to Vegas. Inside the...
JUST F***ING DO IT
In today’s blog, I want to tell you about my amazing friend Lyndel. It was her birthday today – here’s a picture of us taken this afternoon over a late lunch by the river Thames. Lyndel and I are the yin and yang of friendship. She hails from the southern hemisphere,...
This Is For My Girls
It feels too hot to write a blog, so maybe it’s also too hot to read one. Not that I’m complaining, I love this weather. I thought about a follow up to my blog on May vs. Leadsom - thank goodness she’s gone. But I feel too hot to write about that. I thought about...
May vs. Leadsom
For a week now, I’ve had a dilemma. I’ve been working hard on my new book and then Theresa May went and became the front runner to take over from David Cameron and really messed things up. This is because there’s a passage in the first chapter, a conversation between...
Maire and The Monk’s House
I am writing this blog in the Abergavenny Arms after two large glasses of red wine. Actually, I haven’t quite finished the second. I questioned whether I should have the second. But then I thought: what the hell, I don’t need to finish it. I’m going to finish it. This...
The Day After The Great Day Before
The great thing about the day after the great day before is that you can get up early, walk across Hampstead Heath and down through Primrose Hill and Regents Park to Marylebone High Street for Turkish Eggs and Black Pudding at Providores for breakfast. Then you can go...
First Stop Birmingham
Well, we did it. In Birmingham on Thursday, we opened Gareth Farr’s insightful and moving new play The Quiet House and on Saturday we launched Fertility Fest, the UK’s first ever arts festival on fertility, infertility and IVF. It’s been incredible. More than I dared...
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Risking It?
I’ve just finished reading Jeanette Winterson’s moving memoir – Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? It was given to me by ‘Secret Santa’ at the work Christmas party in 2014. Thanks Santa, I know it’s taken me a year and a half to read it but now was the perfect...
I Have A Dream
I have a dream - don’t groan, it’s true. Of a space where people come to tackle a great taboo. A space for people trying to conceive And for those who’ve tried and now moved on To a life without children or, for the lucky ones, a daughter or a son. And I want other...
Fertility Education Education Education
This week for me has been all about Fertility Education. I could write an essay about it but I’ll try and keep this as brief as possible because I’ve got a book to write and a festival to promote (talking of which have you bought your tickets yet? They’re going like...
www.fertilityfest.com
So what are you doing on Saturday 28th May or Saturday 11th June? I hope the answer is or will soon be that you’re coming to Fertility Fest 2016. You may remember I told you about it at the end of last year but in case you’ve forgotten, it’s now time to pen it in....
One Half Down
Remember I told you in January this was the year of the Half Marathon? Well, here I am with my niece at the end of the North London Vitality Half Marathon today. More to follow on the triumph and ignominy soon. When I can feel my legs!
Jessica Hepburn
Jessica Hepburn is one of the UK’s leading voices on fertility and family, as well as endurance sport (even though she doesn’t have children and is the most unlikely athlete). She has become a pioneer in inspiring people to live as big and bravely as possible when life doesn’t go to plan.