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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Lorraine Kelly on Woman's Hour, plugging her new novel...

162 replies

WinterTrees · 16/02/2024 10:37

Oh joy - Lorraine Kelly has decided to bless the literary world with her particular brand of perkiness in fictional form. Anita Rani (of course) in full fawning mode, expressing wide-eyed delight that it's been endorsed by Marian Keyes (as if celebrities don't all quote on each other's books because it's all a back-scratching club) and that one of the main characters - in a wild swimming club no less - is Freya, who started life as Magnus, 'a wee boy'. Lorraine making much of 'women supporting women' and 'being accepted for who you are' 'being allowed to live as yourself' etc etc.

It's annoying enough that another TV celebrity with no writing background has been given a premier publishing slot with the marketing budget, PR platform and retail shelf space that will now not be available to writers who make an increasingly precarious living from books. Even more galling that she's used this uneven playing field to promote her luxury beliefs and transmit her virtue signalling to a captive audience in a cosy, twee fictional setting where the likes of Isla Bryson and Amy George can be conveniently airbrushed out of existence. And to pretend she cares about empowering women.

OP posts:
ZsaZsaTheCat · 16/02/2024 18:03

How on earth has this woman managed to stay on tv for 40yrs-total mystery. What a dullard!

WomanHereWomanHere · 16/02/2024 18:00

Justme56 · 16/02/2024 12:17

Here’s a peak (Google books).

Magnus has always paddled his own canoe

Let’s hope he plans to keep that canoe.

WomanHereWomanHere · 16/02/2024 17:57

Crankywiddershins · 16/02/2024 11:59

Be kind! It's not Lorraine Kelly the individual that you should be annoyed with, it's Lorraine Kelly the non human who doesn't exist for tax purposes that's written the "novel".

No, it’s not either of those two, it’s a new tax entity who’s identifying as a writer!

LadyEloise1 · 16/02/2024 17:56

I can't stand her either.
She just seems so smug.
I've just read an interview she did with
Laura Pullman in the Sunday Times magazine.
It was a real puff piece which I hate like the ones you see in Good Housekeeping and Woman and Home. 🙄
So unlike the Nigel Farage interview by Decca Aitkenhead in the same issue.

RainbowZebraWarrior · 16/02/2024 17:53

WickedSerious · 16/02/2024 12:19

Before I assault my eyeballs I need someone to tell me if it's worse than Steve Bruce's detective 'novels'.

What?? Steve Bruce writes detective novels? Fucking Nora. I'm guessing they are as bad as his football management skills. Useless shite that he was.

NeighbourhoodWatchPotholeDivision · 16/02/2024 17:50

Allthegoodnamesarechosen · 16/02/2024 14:37

🤭🤣😂 she doesn’t know what nonplussed means ! She thinks it means ‘not bothered’ but alas the day, the dictionary doesn’t agree:

’so surprised and confused that one is unsure how to react.’

I dont know who this LK person is, but I do know she doesn’t have an editor for her ‘novel’.

She's confused between the traditional meaning, and the new informal meaning in US vernacular. An editor really should have spotted that.
What's Going On With 'Nonplussed'? | Merriam-Webster

What's Going On With 'Nonplussed'?

Its recent usage is hard to shrug off.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/nonplussed

OkPedro · 16/02/2024 17:49

Justme56 · 16/02/2024 12:17

Here’s a peak (Google books).

What the hell is that crap?! Poor "Freya" stunning and brave.. why are they never called Barbara or Angela 😏

pinkpale · 16/02/2024 17:48

Nonplussed...
Bad writing, bad editing.

RainbowZebraWarrior · 16/02/2024 17:47

What the actual Fuck.

Is she just jumping on any bandwagon now? She should be embarrassed about herself, but I supposed she's been bigged up by her fellow TV cronies as a Daytime Telly Queen and supposed National Treasure, I guess you start to believe your own hype, eh?

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 16/02/2024 17:41

Are there still awards for bad fiction? With luck, this book will sweep the board.

Nitgel · 16/02/2024 17:21

😆😆that extract is cringe

Hoosemover · 16/02/2024 17:13

why do think authors think women want to read all this misogynistic clap trap?
I mentally file this under “not worth the bother” along beside the ‘50 shades of grey” bullshite that was all the range a decade ago.

Moier · 16/02/2024 17:04

She's been on every show she can get on.. we don't have to read it now.. because she never shuts up and now we know the whole plot of the story.

Tessisme · 16/02/2024 16:58

Justme56 · 16/02/2024 12:17

Here’s a peak (Google books).

Oh dear. It's not great, is it?

Tinysoxxx · 16/02/2024 16:55

She will have had at least one editor. Back in the day I overhead a very stressed editor on a big brick phone to ‘the team’ of J Archers latest. I asked how many - 15!!!!!

crumpet · 16/02/2024 16:55

Justme56 · 16/02/2024 12:17

Here’s a peak (Google books).

Incorrect use of “nonplussed”. I think she thinks it means the reverse of what it actually means.

MotherEarthisaTerf · 16/02/2024 16:46

Meshka · 16/02/2024 15:24

I wish there was a "like" button for half of these comments,

I won't be reading this book for a number of reasons but for one it is So Infuriating that "celebs" can become writers simply based on their name. And get those prime time slots

I have not listened to womens hour because I personally also can't abide Anita Rani but this would have been a turn off even if it had been Emma Barnett....

To PP who said how can Lorraine discuss the lived experience of something she has no clue yes I hope the double standards are exposed here!!!

I use the thanks button sometimes in way of a “like”

WinterTrees · 16/02/2024 15:25

Reading that extract it seems that this has been written as propaganda disguised as fiction, to show the lady readers the right way to think and behave. Look how easy it is to #bekind!

(Very easy if you're a two-dimensional secondary character with no backstory of your own, only there to showcase the virtue of the author.)

OP posts:
Lantyslee · 16/02/2024 15:24

I turned on in the middle of the interview and didn't realise it was LK (I don't watch much TV) and found myself wondering who she was and noting that she was tediously flakey as was Anita Rani. Then she comes out with her homespun bullshit about Magnus/Freya and how important diversity is when Lorraine and Anita are never likely to be locked in a prison cell with Isla Bryson. Two privileged idiots giving away other women's rights.

I'm in the middle of re-reading Robert Galbraith and won't be wasting my time with LKs painful prose.

Meshka · 16/02/2024 15:24

I wish there was a "like" button for half of these comments,

I won't be reading this book for a number of reasons but for one it is So Infuriating that "celebs" can become writers simply based on their name. And get those prime time slots

I have not listened to womens hour because I personally also can't abide Anita Rani but this would have been a turn off even if it had been Emma Barnett....

To PP who said how can Lorraine discuss the lived experience of something she has no clue yes I hope the double standards are exposed here!!!

MistyGreenAndBlue · 16/02/2024 15:23

Justme56 · 16/02/2024 12:17

Here’s a peak (Google books).

What a pile of cack!

MotherEarthisaTerf · 16/02/2024 15:16

I can’t believe I ever thought the same as Lorraine and thought wee boys might have girl brains.

wish I could let her have a listen to herself. You’d thinking reading on paper how ridiculous it sounds (reads) would do it.

Tombero · 16/02/2024 15:16

Thank you for the extract. To be positive, the writing does suggest she’s written it herself. No self respecting ghost writer could have written that.

determinedtomakethiswork · 16/02/2024 15:11

I can't understand how that woman gets everywhere. She's spectacularly dim, thinks she's really cute and up everybody's bums. Although I expect that final bit explains everything.

ImARubbishNickKnowles · 16/02/2024 14:51

Having read that excruciating extract, Lorraine is just identifying as a writer. Or perhaps it's Lorraine for tax purposes who is the "writer," the other Lorraine is cringing somewhere.

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