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:
MagpiePi · 16/02/2024 11:13

QuietlyLurkingintheCorner · 16/02/2024 10:50

Urgh, I nearly vomited into the cake batter I was mixing up. Luckily I could only half hear over the mixer! Bad enough that yet another well paid celebrity has been given a publishing contract at the expense of someone who can actually write. And isn't writing a character outside your own 'lived experience' a literal crime these days? How come Lorraine gets a pass for that?

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.

Xoxoxoxoxoxox · 16/02/2024 11:13

saveforthat · 16/02/2024 10:43

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

Same.
Didn’t like her before she fawned over Suzie Eddy Izzard and told us all to’beee kind.’

WickedSerious · 16/02/2024 11:08

No thanks,I've got slugs to lick.

WinterTrees · 16/02/2024 11:04

As an aside, I just looked it up on amazon. Marian Keyes's quote is 'Gorgeous debut novel' which is... rather sparse in terms of endorsement. It has the ring of 'what can I get away with to ensure my space on Lorraine's prime-time TV sofa while not completely selling myself out as a writer.'

OP posts:
WinterTrees · 16/02/2024 10:54

saveforthat · 16/02/2024 10:43

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

She is the human embodiment of #bekind. A fixed smile and permanent head tilt that hides ruthless self-interest, an ego the size of the sun that masquerades as 'oh, it's just little old me.'

OP posts:
determinedtomakethiswork · 16/02/2024 10:51

I felt exactly the same. I was just about to listen to woman's hour and heard Lorraine Kelly was going to be on it and decided not to bother. I can't bear that woman. At first I thought she will have used a ghostwriter and then I had a horrible feeling she would've written herself. A ghostwriter would be infinitely preferable.

SidewaysOtter · 16/02/2024 10:51

”…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.”

Oh FFS <barfs>

QuietlyLurkingintheCorner · 16/02/2024 10:50

Urgh, I nearly vomited into the cake batter I was mixing up. Luckily I could only half hear over the mixer! Bad enough that yet another well paid celebrity has been given a publishing contract at the expense of someone who can actually write. And isn't writing a character outside your own 'lived experience' a literal crime these days? How come Lorraine gets a pass for that?

nauticant · 16/02/2024 10:47

I will listen to almost anything on Radio 4 but when I heard it was going to be an Anita Rani Fluffy Friday special and that she'd be interviewing Lorraine Kelly I turned it off.

heldinadream · 16/02/2024 10:45

Fuck sake. Is all I can think of saying. (Or worse.)

saveforthat · 16/02/2024 10:43

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

MrsDanversGlidesAgain · 16/02/2024 10:41

I can confidently say that this one won't be gracing my bookshelves. There are too many good works out there to read to waste time on 'celeb' fiction.

Swipe left for the next trending thread