You laugh menopause?!’
love of strangers, in big rooms, have found it hard. But half of what I do now is writing…
Of course. Tell us about Older and Wider – great title, by the way…
Thank you! Well, it came from a podcast I did with my friend, Judith. A lot of books about the menopause are medical and po-faced. I wanted mine to be something you could laugh about, as well as being useful.
Do you think there is still a taboo about menopause?
Not in the circles I move in, but then I’ve never shied away from talking about stuff, and my friends tend to be similar. One thing I haven’t figured out is why people lose their sense of humour when they talk about it.
Are you out the other side now?
Well, I had eight years of it, and I am still on HRT, I will be taking it till I go to the grave. I can’t say I’ve emerged like a beautiful butterfly, from some old menopausal chrysalis, but I have found the ‘new me’. I think writing the book was quite therapeutic. I proved to myself that menopause isn’t the end of things, it is just the beginning of something else. And, it is a reminder to get on with things – a bit like this pandemic – to make the most of what you’ve got and the time you have left.
A lot of the advice in the book is quite relevant to the current situation…
Yes, there’s a lot about the
Yes, I have a recipe, I have the details of the world’s easiest trousers – from M&S, of course – it is practical!
Some of the advice – like ‘don’t drink and shop’ – sounds like it comes from experience?!
Oh yes, there was a time when the shops were shut before you had your first drink – but there’s so much opportunity now to buy things then regret it later. Mind you, nowadays when I get a bit pissed I go into a Lakeland frenzy.
In the book, you suggest just having ‘one glass of something expensive’...
Well, that is good advice but… I’ve had a couple of nights in lockdown where I’ve done angry drinking! I’ve been buying wine online and I’ve not liked a few. Sometimes you think ‘I’d better hold my nose and drink it’, but the other day, one was so bad, I poured it down the sink – that was probably the most adult thing I have ever done.
It would have been even more grown-up to freeze it, for cooking…
I’ve only got a tiny freezer – I may be 60, but I’m not really a grown-up.
He still paints faces on your boiled eggs, doesn’t he?
Yes, there is a kindness there. He gives me lifts, and he did my roots – it’s now a mixture of orange and blonde – from the back it is skanky – but who cares? I’m not going out!
What are you most looking forward to when things are back to normal?
I would like to get my career back! But also, I miss the bus! I would love to sit on the top deck of the 176 and go over Waterloo Bridge. Without panicking. The most frustrating thing is, I just got my bus pass and it’s barely been used!
Older and Wider is out now (Quercus, £16.99). The Older and Wider podcast with Jenny Eclair and Grumpy Old Women producer Judith Holder is available on Acast, Spotify and iTunes.
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What is it that you get to transform on the show?
I recently dug out a new pond on the farm and our soil is very clay-rich. I wanted to use that clay, so I made it into a pizza oven, which I was quite proud of. Now, this may sound crazy, but I also made a sofa out of soil and turf. I sit on it everyday, and talk to my pigs!
You didn’t start out to become a television presenter, is that right?
I got my first job at the BBC, working as a runner on Animal Hospital and then
The Holiday Programme.
On my second day in the Holiday office, the programme editor asked me whether I had thought about being a presenter. I said, ‘No!’ In the end, it just happened naturally – but it was never my plan.
In 2007 you moved from London to a farm in the Wye Valley – what prompted that?
I was desperate to move out. I love the countryside and I just felt it was the right time to make that move. Everyone dreams about being self
You said recently that walking helped you through bereavement, when your dad, Nick, died last year...
Yes, it did. I had really happy memories of my dad, but when somebody dies, you realise your response to it is incredibly personal. I find that walking is a nice way of quietly processing your thoughts, and doing it in a really relaxing way.
You have a new book out in September, called A Year of Living Simply – what can you tell me about that?
It is really what it says on the cover – it’s about trying to