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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to not understand appeal of Caitlin Moran writing for The Times?

315 replies

ARealDame · 30/06/2013 11:37

She always has at least a couple of articles in The Times on Saturday, including her TV reviews, and seems to be heavily promoted there at the moment.

But I often find her writing cringeworthy e.g. this Saturday TV reviewing The White Queen headlines "She Makes Ingrid Bergman look like Someone Stuck Tits on a Turnip". Last Saturday, reviewing exactly the same programme (did anyone at The Times notice Hmm?) the review headlined Battles, Castles and Tons of Fruity Historical Humping. Is she just being crass/offensive for the sake of it? And I find so much of her writing self-adulating plus impossible to make any sense of, a jumble of thoughtless sentences stuck together ... almost like a teenager on speed.

It seems a shame when The Times on Saturday has some enjoyable journalism e.g. the often brilliant Janice Turner, Matthew Paris, Giles Coran, plus some great review stuff of the Arts.

My heart just sinks when I see her bylines and picture. AIBU ?

OP posts:
Korovaj · 30/06/2013 11:42

Her book on 'how to be a woman' is one of the most odious bits of drivel I have read in a very long time....

OwlinaTree · 30/06/2013 11:45

I follow her on twitter, but have not read any of her articles as you have to pay for the times on line. She's quite good on twitter.

BoysAreLikeDogs · 30/06/2013 12:36

Well tbf she is very POPULAR and really QUITE CLEVER.That article was LITTERED with riffs on modern culture. I imagine that if the Times bosses don't LIKE it they wouldn't keep her.

So NER.

burberryqueen · 30/06/2013 12:38

YANBU she dresses and writes like a silly teenager

picnicbasketcase · 30/06/2013 12:40

Grin BoysAreLikeDogs, that was quite uncanny.

perplexedpirate · 30/06/2013 12:41

I like her. I find her funny and relevant.
So ner! Wink

Justfornowitwilldo · 30/06/2013 12:54

Your problem is reading The Times.

Alisvolatpropiis · 30/06/2013 12:56

Yanbu.

Wildly overrated.

OldLadyKnowsNothing · 30/06/2013 12:59

I cannot comment on her writing, but I doubt she writes her own headlines. Don't they have sub-editors for that kind of thing?

Crowler · 30/06/2013 13:02

I am always a bit Hmm when people ask me if I've read Caitlin Moran such-and-such book. Honestly, I don't think she's all that clever. I don't like her chick-lit journalism.

noddyholder · 30/06/2013 13:03

Not keen at all Tries too hard and misses imho

CharlotteBronteSaurus · 30/06/2013 13:04

i like her a lot
i think she's very funny, and much less snipey/cruel than lots of columnists out there. her columns are usually a break from all that endless negativity

specialsubject · 30/06/2013 13:07

Usually dull, but this week's stuff on Glastonbury was quite good.Loved the bit about girls who sit on boyfriend's shoulders being selfish attention-seekers. It boiled down to 'Get on the ground, bimbo - you are blocking people's view.'

HumphreyCobbler · 30/06/2013 13:09

I like her. She is funny. CW normally makes me giggle.

Surely one would be foolish to expect to like all columnists in a paper? One of the things I like about the Times is the varied opinion and writing style. I don't like India Knight or Minette Marin, but I don't think the worse of the paper for including them.

Wossname · 30/06/2013 13:10

I really liked her until I saw her on telly.

CaptainJamesTKirk · 30/06/2013 13:12

I agree with burberryqueen. I really don't get the appeal.

Zynia41 · 30/06/2013 13:15

I don't follow her on twitter but I think it's a good job she's reminding conservative privileged people that benefits does not equal evil. She's doing a good job. keep it up. Although yes, my mother looked at the picture of her posing as though she were on the loo with a piece of toilet paper and sighed and tried to make sense of it. She may be annoying in rl, but what she says ought to be said. Laughing is irrelevant!

ThirdTimesABrokenFanjo · 30/06/2013 13:24

i like her. why does her dress sense even get a mention on a thread discussing her writing though? Hmm

burberryqueen · 30/06/2013 13:26

because there is a massive pic of her in the middle of the column? I mean you can't help it!

hollyisalovelyname · 30/06/2013 13:55

Bit of 'Emperor's new clothes' bout Caitlin Moran methinks.

littlewhitebag · 30/06/2013 14:10

I think she is hilarious she writes the sort of things I often think. Leave her alone.

trice · 30/06/2013 14:12

She makes me laugh. I think she is clever and funny. I don't read the times though.

GreenShadow · 30/06/2013 14:13

I used to like her and am old enough to remember her being discovered by The Times as a teenager.
Maybe I've got older and her writing hasn't, but I feel I've grown out of her.

Snazzywaitingforsummer · 30/06/2013 14:17

She can make a good point when she wants to but I find her style really IRRITATING. Some parts of How To Be A Woman were great but the whole thing was wildly overpraised as the Best Work of Feminism Ever.

themaltesecat · 30/06/2013 15:04

"Fifi Adelsmythe" nailed her perfectly [[http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/reviewofbooks_preview/10740 here].