I’m going on maternity leave!
Somehow there’s only a week left of 2021, and there’s no doubt it’s been another very weird and very challenging year – globally, nationally, and individually, in many different ways for all of us.
I’m conscious that I personally have withdrawn from a lot of my more public-facing work as a journalist this year. I’ve been much more absent than I ever really intended, not only from this blog, but also from the publications I usually freelance regularly for, and from social media.
In April I signed my first book deal, with Bloomsbury, and in May found out I was expecting my first baby – before spending the first six months of my pregnancy writing the aforementioned first book. Turns out (who’d have guessed?!) that both growing a human and writing a book are quite hard work, and doing both at once has taken an enormous amount out of me, leaving very little time or energy for much else.
I’m hugely proud of what I’ve achieved this year, and I can’t wait to share more about the book with you all soon. But I’m also exhausted and very ready for some proper time off before the baby makes its appearance in the new year.
I’ll be on maternity leave – including taking an official hiatus from Hysterical Women – for at least the first half of 2022, and not back at work full-time until September. At some point between now and then, I’m looking forward to finally being able to share some book updates – including the title, publication date and pre-order details.
I’ll be posting more news as soon as I can, so watch this space! In the meantime, wishing you all a safe and healthy festive period, and all the best for the new year.
