Charlotte Church in the Guardian

[JessieMcJessie]

Here

This is on the site today and she had another piece in a few weeks ago. The writing style is really good- do you think she’s writing this stuff herself or it’s ghosted? It just seems so at odds with how I’ve seen her speak on TV- I mean she comes across as perfectly pleasant and bright (and spoke well at the Leveson enquiry) but this is another level.

I’m talking about the style by the way, not the ideas expressed.

I've always been told I write well, but editing is still transformative to my published work. I've actually edited and massively improved other people's work too; it's much easier to do for anyone but yourself. I recently edited an essay collection featuring some of the biggest names in my academic field and it was both eye-opening and extremely reassuring to see what their first, unedited drafts look like and how far they are from the published work.

@thatmustbenigelwiththebrie She is really very intelligent, and canny :).

@iwantatattoo miaow indeed. I'm being as nice as I possibly can be there though, because it's not cool to trash someone thoroughly on a mumsnet thread just because you can

I would totally assume a man, however bright, had had a piece like this ghost-written. Writing these articles takes special skills which aren't learned overnight, it's no criticism of anyone, or doubting their intelligence. She would have checked over the piece to make sure she was happy with it, so no harm done.

She's got an op-ed column, so she's probably looking at some sort of career or side career writing. She may have taken a journalism course.

Chrissy Hynde also made the leap from music to journalism (and quite well, I think).

I do see what you mean about there being a lot of very 'writery' stuff in there - the metaphors and allusions. I suspect that the first draft might actually have been quite overblown and there's been some reining in and refining from the editor, which is why it seems so polished. It is easier to do that than to make dull prose sparkle.

Comefromaway:

Llandaff is a very expensive area of Cardiff, certainly not working class. She attended an independent school (The Catherdral School) before receiving the scholarship.

I don't believe she even has a Welsh accent, apart from when she's receiving media attention. The image of her being a 'poor kid' is purely a character, in which a lot of celebrities portray.

I went to the same school as CC, I am not surprised by the standard of writing. We didn’t have vocal scholarships when I was there. Very few scholarships at all, I think only one or two girls each year.

Yes, that’s the point I was trying to make, ForeverbyJudyBlume.

Where is her op-ed column DistanceCall?

Are you sort of implying that because she's not a graduate, she's incapable of writing fluently? She's a musician, a songwriter, a creative performer who's been around the media all her life, and read a million and one interviews about herself; why wouldn't she absorb the rhythms of this sort of 'casual' journalism? Creative writing is about having an ear for linguistic flow and cadence - and clearly, she's got a good ear.

Yes, it's probably been subbed, like everything gets subbed, but there's just no reason why the Guardian would go to the trouble and additional expense of commissioning a ghost writer for something like this.

I went to the same school as her and she had the accent. The teachers there were incredible and I wouldn't be surprised at all if she wrote the article herself. She had a very good standard of education.

Apparently, she's going to be a regular columnist at the Guardian, so I highly doubt she's being ghosted:

www.theguardian.com/gnm-press-office/2019/mar/13/adrian-chiles-and-charlotte-church-join-new-look-guardian-g2-as-columnists

*Waves to Blodwyn

Hello Hywellian!

Chrissy Hynde also made the leap from music to journalism (and quite well, I think).

The other way around, in fact. She wrote for the NME for a while before leaving to become a musician. She says in her autobiography that she wasn't really cut out for journalism.

HeavensToTenby I didn’t mention university or say at any point that writing ability is connected to being/not being a graduate. Not sure where you got that from. I know plenty of graduates (in humanities subjects as well as in sciences) who are terrible writers. Conversely my Dad was a journalist who never passed a single exam in his life.

My only exposure to CC apart from chat show interviews when she was a guest, and of course hearing her sing as a child, was a shirt-lived chat show that she hosted. While she was fine, she didn’t have the easy way with a bon mot or quick-witted observation that I have seen in the likes of Jonathan Ross or Graham Norton. Of course that is a different skill to writing Guardian articles. I was just interested to know (1) if anyone had any behind-the -scenes knowledge if the extent to which these things are polished by professional journalists and (2) whether she had more writing output that I wasn’t aware of, because it seemed like a very good Freshman effort to me.

Actually looking at that link where the Guardian say CC will be a regular columnist I imagine that she has pretty heavy support from the editors there.

I’m very good friends with a sub-editor. From what she’s told me I think a lot of people would be shocked at how much work has to go into subbing copy from some professional journalists. Good subbing is invisible.

She got a string of As at GCSE if I remember correctly and she’s a published songwriter so there’s no reason why she wouldnt have written it. She always comes across as very articulate. We’re just used to our celebrities being a bit thick!

She has always come across as an intelligent girl and now woman to me.

I think accents don't always help. We see so many Etonians doing the intelligent thing on the media (and people looking to get anywhere within the media as far as newscasting and similar is concerned are very much expected to have a queens english style accent), so our perception of what intelligence sounds like is skewed. I say that as someone with a very obvious non-english accent.

I would also say agree that the skills needed to be a quick witted chat show host are very different indeed to being a writer. One I can do, the other I would be absolutely hopeless at.

Yes she went to an independent school, not the local comp.

The other way around, in fact. She wrote for the NME for a while before leaving to become a musician. She says in her autobiography that she wasn't really cut out for journalism.

Ah, interesting. I read some recent writings of hers, and I thought they were quite good. So yes, obviously human beings can do more than one thing well!

It’s her own work. She’s a brilliant writer and very intelligent. I have insider knowledge

I don't know how bright she is but like betteroblivian, I am also aware of an instance of her appropriating someone else's work as her own. I was pretty shocked but apparently it's a common deal to let someone with the fame take credit to get a bit of a foot.in the door yourself. Maybe she's good too but I know she's not above.pretending she's written something herself when she hadn't.

I doubt she's even Welsh, tbh