Have we talked about India Knight talking about MN on Woman's Hour yet?

[holidaywonk]

She is soooooo an MNer. She has us down pat, and was bang on about the MSM's horror at discovering that women of young children hold strong views.

Hello India!

[TotalChaos]

pag - IK has a blog on the SundayTimes website called Isn't she Talking yet?

timesonline.typepad.com/india_knight/

which deals with SN related issues, pretty good but she hasn't updated it for a while.

[Meglet]

Was she on something special last week? There was a mum who looked an awful lot like her, I think Justin was at a theme park at the time.

I've had a soft spot for her since I read the ruth picardie book years ago, heartbreaking book but her e-mails were very funny. I'm sure she did an observer column too.

[holidaywonk]

cat - missorinico was thanking me for explaining what MSM is (I think...)

[catinthehat2]

I shall squeeze my foil into a ball and chuck it in the recycler.

[MmeLindt]

I have always liked her column in the Times, she is a very funny, forthright and honest person. Even when I don't agree with her, I enjoy reading her writings.

PW
I could kiss you right now for the link to the podcast. Never thought of doing that, and I cannot access the BBC iPlayer from here.

[BlackYellowRed]

Ah sorry about that... link didn't work for me either. I listened to the podcast and that worked fine.

[annabelcaramel]

Meglet - you're right about that being her on Something Special, with her daughter Nell. Having been made to watch this 15 billion times I am fairly sure.

[holidaywonk]

Did I link to the podcast? Yay me!

[EdgarAleNPie]

i don't think much of her column, I find her a bit unnecessarily venomous.

she posts on AlphaMumy (or i assume that's who IK is) and i generally find her annoying and in some ways ill-informed.

I think even less of Tanya Byron, who likes to bandy about the words 'emotional damage' ill advisedly in her articles of supposed good parenting advice.

anyway, what did they say? i was on my way out with an excited dog and two babies at the time???

DH tells me they said we were all nutjobs.

[holidaywonk]

No no, that's the curious thing, she didn't say we were nutjobs. She said we were clever and marvellous (I paraphrase).

[SantaClausImWorthIt]

Haven't read her novels, but her book "The Idiot Proof Diet" is actually very good, and not only tackles food/eating from the psychological point of view, it also does it from the perspective of someone who has followed the diet and lost weight on it herself. It's very good.

[holidaywonk]

Hello there BIWI.

That's three people saying the book's good - I'm going to have to get it aren't I. I am fatty mcfat at the moment.

[annabelcaramel]

The diet book is good and does work BUT, ime of people that have done it, you can't stick to it - read it first to discover they both stuck to the 'bootcamp' stage for 100 days or something, then re-mortgage your house if you decide you do want to do it but like nice food -it can work out v expensive. And there's virtually no fruit to start with.If you google the diet + reviews you get a fair summary.
I like her, I like her columns even if I don't always agree,and she has lost weight -but the diet book goes a bit too far if you ask me . Which you didn't so I'll shut up!

[holidaywonk]

Look, will someone just hook me up to some sort of suction device with a large nozzle

[traceybath]

Her blog is lovely.

I like her columns and find her amusing and honest.

[JJ]

Yes, exactly what fishie said goes for me, too. Didn't do the diet but the book was very motivating (but not in a harsh way) and reassuring.

Of course, I am speaking as a woman who feels slightly ill because I've had too much to eat tonight.

[SantaClausImWorthIt]

Well, the diet is based on low carbing, so fruit is always going to be difficult. The first phase - similar to Atkins induction - means that fruit is definitely out, along with a lot of other carbs. But the diet is in three phases, and by the third phase many carbs are then allowed.

It's like any other diet - you have to follow it properly for it to work. The initial 'bootcamp' phase need only be two weeks. It just depends on how much weight you have to lose.

[EdgarAleNPie]

ah but we are clever and marvellous >preens<

it is unusual to hear such a wholehearted endorsement though.
I mean there are other mummying forums...

not that i've posted on one in a while (AM doesn't really count, as it is a blog)

[EdgarAleNPie]

i'm slightly ill at ease with the people we talk about being on here though - i mean i wouldn't describe another MNer as 'writing tosh' even if i thought so - but i'm game to describe pundits in such terms.

although i recognise this is a searchable forum yada yada, it feels rather more insular than that, am not comfortable with the reminder this is in some ways illusory.

[MmeLindt]

I like her blog, particularly as she has blogged about the ring that I bought in Dublin that DH told me today that he does not like. Said it looked cheap. Pah.

India Knight likes it.

So there.

[ThreadNosedReindeer]

Not sure I agree with a characterisation of MSM in terms of its horror at mothers of young children having strong views. That element is there among others, but MN owes its current influence and high profile very largely to its relationship with MSM. MN seems depressingly dependent on it in fact.

The hostile caricatures of MN in the press are pretty much deserved. Not accurate, of course, but a reasonable cartoon version that balances the officially cultivated image, which has had a strong presence in MSM recently.

[poinsettydawg]

too right we are clever

[poinsettydawg]

and ridiculously opinionated

[annabelcaramel]

When I first read this post I thought MSM stood for Mail on Sunday Magazine
It could you know...