Please or to access all these features

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:
Crikeyalmighty · 16/02/2024 14:48

She's always in 'woman & home' on cover this month- now I like the magazine- but she irritates the pants off me for some reason

FantasticElasticBand · 16/02/2024 14:43

I was just thinking the same @Crankywiddershins

Mochudubh · 16/02/2024 14:42

@Justme56 I'm not sure if your use of "peak" rather than "peek" is a typo or ironic.

Meh. It works either way.

MatchingBedding · 16/02/2024 14:40

Drag queen!

MatchingBedding · 16/02/2024 14:40

Oh Christ! Lorraine with your wild swimmers, trans kids and general knee bending to whatever current trend you can patronise. Has she thrown in a day queen called “Tartan with a heartan”, she loves a good bit of drag. Disclaimer I wouldn’t use the word tart to describe women.

Allthegoodnamesarechosen · 16/02/2024 14:37

Justme56 · 16/02/2024 12:17

Here’s a peak (Google books).

🤭🤣😂 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’.

Mindymomo · 16/02/2024 14:34

I am so fed up with bookshelves in shops full of ‘celebrity novels’ I really do wonder if they actually wrote them, as I cannot imagine writing a novel is easy.

MorrisZapp · 16/02/2024 14:31

Those are the worst paragraphs ever arranged by humanity. Does LK not have access to AI? My actual granny writes more fluently than that. Oh god the twinkly old couple who knew the fat boy was a Norse goddess since he was three..... come friendly bombs indeed.

Runningwildish · 16/02/2024 14:30

I turned it off mid interview and downloaded a Robert Galbraith audio book by way of a palate cleanser.

UltraSpartacular · 16/02/2024 14:30

Justme56 · 16/02/2024 12:17

Here’s a peak (Google books).

Jeez, she's no writer, is she?

MorrisZapp · 16/02/2024 14:29

Justme56 · 16/02/2024 12:17

Here’s a peak (Google books).

WHY WHY WHY WHY

PaterPower · 16/02/2024 14:24

My god, that extract was painful to read.

CriticalCondition · 16/02/2024 13:24

The bit I heard before deciding I'd rather scrub out the gunk in the bottom of my bins ticked every predictable and tedious trans box. Even the mermaids selkies.And that extract confirms it. Talk about writing by numbers.

And when I came back the two spirit person was waffling on.

Anita Rani sounded positively lightheaded with excitement. Glad she enjoyed it.

Outwiththenorm · 16/02/2024 12:45

Did she really have to go here and describe Magnus’s ‘chubby lad’? 🤢

NeighbourhoodWatchPotholeDivision · 16/02/2024 12:37

I am intrigued that in fiction, male transitioners tend to be of average female height.

WickedSerious · 16/02/2024 12:19

Justme56 · 16/02/2024 12:17

Here’s a peak (Google books).

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

Justme56 · 16/02/2024 12:17

Here’s a peak (Google books).

Lorraine Kelly on Woman's Hour, plugging her new novel...
QuietlyLurkingintheCorner · 16/02/2024 12:15

MagpiePi · 16/02/2024 11:13

If you are fawning enough then you can write about any character that is outside your lived experience. If you give the character any negative traits then you are guilty of appropriation.

Haha yes, completely fine so long as your characters are one-dimensional, which shouldn't be a problem for the average celebrity author 😀

AdriftAbroad1 · 16/02/2024 12:09

Why is she even successful?
Why does she agree in interviews by saying "no, you are right"?

Cannot bear her. Her dog, husband, family be forced down our throats. Her breast cancer single that was just all about her. The focus should have been on Joss Stone and the women sufferers that sang.

pickledandpuzzled · 16/02/2024 12:03

I’m hugely relieved actually. The previous guest was a two spirit person channeling their masculine energy while arresting people and being completely comfortable with that while still being completely comfortable with being feminine. Or something.

I wasn’t properly listening but was worrying that Emma was now fawning over guests talking nonsense.

Glad to hear it wasn’t emma. She has a brain and uses it.

crockofshite · 16/02/2024 11:59

saveforthat · 16/02/2024 10:43

For some irrational reason I can't stand her. I dislike her even more now

Yep, this.

She's an awful TV host / guest /interviewer, always babbling unintelligibly over other people, and when you can make head or tail of anything she's saying, it's all about NOTHING - just boring babble.

She needs replacing.

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".

WinterTrees · 16/02/2024 11:38

I think she also mentioned that she was going to be (had already been?) on Graham Norton, which is exactly the kind of top tier PR that genuine writers just don't get. She pretended this was all astonishing to her - 'aren't I lucky!' as if it hadn't all been promised and nailed down when she signed the book contract and trousered the eye-watering advance.

OP posts:
NotBadConsidering · 16/02/2024 11:25

So Lorraine Kelly has written a book about trans character? But Lorraine Kelly isn’t trans! What horrible transphobic appropriation 😡. I trust that the trans activists will be arranging her transfer to the Gulag for reeducation as I type.

Flowers4me · 16/02/2024 11:25

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.

Couldn't agree more; am getting so fed up of celebrities churning out books and taking up bookshelf space. I make a deliberate attempt to seek non-celeb books that have good reviews etc. As for LK, I've never been a fan (she seems inauthentic to me) and this latest posturing just puts me off even more.

Swipe left for the next trending thread