BOOKSHELF I lure people in with jokes and then hit them with feminism O
UTSPOKEN feminist, bestselling author and award-winning columnist Caitlin Moran is one entertaining – and exhausting – individual.
Her fast-talking, expletive-filled chatter is amusing, opinionated and feisty in equal measure, as she talks about everything from her upbringing on a council estate in Wolverhampton, the eldest of eight children, to her experiences of sexual harassment in the workplace.
Her book signings go on for hours and often seal friendships as people wait, although she’s also witnessed the occasional punch-up when there’s a bar close by, she observes wryly.
“You see girls walking towards you and you think, ‘Oh my God, in 10 years’ time, you are going to change the world. You have such an air of destiny about you’. I like to tell them that, that they have an incredible aura about them.
“People used to say that to me when I was younger and it does change the way you think about yourself.”
In Caitlin’s case, it’s certainly proved true. She published her first children’s novel, The Chronicles Of Narmo, at just 16 and became a columnist for The Times at 18, while her bestselling books include How To Be A Woman and Moranthology. Her latest novel, How To Be Famous, is the second in a semi-autobiographical trilogy following the adventures of Johanna Morrigan, a 19-year-old columnist (known as Dolly Wilde) for The Face, who makes a name for herself against a backdrop of 1995 London at the epicentre of Britpop.
While climbing the career ladder, she has ‘bad sex’ with a loathsome young comedian who videos them in the act and then shows the video to his friends. As the story of the sex tape spreads, Johanna sets out to wreak revenge on the comedian, while her romance with a rock star she’s lusted after for ages develops.
“She’s a clever teenage girl writing a column about how people are screwing up their fame, and then finds out that there are many kinds of fame and the fame that she gets is notoriety,” Caitlin explains. “Even though it’s the Nineties, there’s so much revenge porn now, and I wanted to write how a teenage girl would deal with revenge porn and sexual shame.”
There is a ‘Me Too’ reference, and Caitlin says she herself experienced sexual harassment during her early career, but didn’t realise it immediately. Award-winning writer Caitlin Moran talks to about her new novel, venturing into movies and her family’s plans for when Trump visits “When I was working for unsurprisingly, both feminists. Feldstein with her Wolverhampton magazines, the first time I asked for “I’ve got pictures of them dressed accent, by sending her recorded a cover feature, the features editor up as suffragettes on marches with tapes of her voice. told me to sit on his knee and come their placards. We’re all excited “I realise now, because I’ve lost and talk about it. about Trump coming here. We’re my accent, that I’m basically doing “In my head, I was going to march against Trump – an impression of Noddy Holder,” thinking, ‘I’ve always been a that’s going to be a big family day Caitlin quips. fat and unattractive child. out,” says Caitlin. “Beanie Feldstein looks a bit like I’m now being sexually While her writing and social me. When we started developing harassed – is this an commentating have earned her the script, it was a leap of faith upgrade?’ I just dealt with it great acclaim, Caitlin is now because the chances of finding a as I would deal with an dipping her toes in the movie young actress who’s big and curvy, annoying brother, I just sat world, as her first novel in the brilliant and charming and very heavily on his knee trilogy, How To Build A Girl, is beautiful... you just don’t get those and bounced up and down being made into a film starring actresses coming along. Then Lady and said, ‘Yes, I’d like to American actress Beanie Feldstein, Bird came along and there was write a feature, please’. He best known for her role in comingof-age Beanie Feldstein.” gave me the feature and never did it hit, Lady Bird. While there is great humour in again. “I’ve always wanted to make the novel, towards the end the tone “Another guy tried to sexually movies, I’ve always wanted to make becomes more punchy, as Johanna shame me by telling people I’d had TV, so it’s been the best thing.” seeks to put her own feminist point sex with someone from the office. I She is clearly in control of the across and put the comedian in his made him stand on the chair in an project. Caitlin is executive place. “My modus operandi is to editorial meeting and apologise to producer, has penned the screenplay, lure people in with jokes and sex everybody for spreading rumours and selected the band who and dirty stuff, and then hit them about me. will write songs for her with the politics and the feminism.” “I ended up marrying fictional pop star. The third book will be set in the the guy that he was She’s been involved present day, when Johanna spreading the in casting, the ventures into politics. salacious gossip settings, “I wanted there to be a story that about – he is my wardrobe, girls like me can read and go, ‘Oh husband now.” make-up, the God! I could be a politician! I could That man is lot. “It’s change things! I could go back to a Times rock basically the system where working-class people critic Peter story of my with great ideas can change things’.” Paphides, life and I Today, Caitlin writes a celebrity whom she met know column, and says the nature of at 19 and what’s celebrity has changed. married at 24. right and “Coming from a council estate in They have two what’s Wolverhampton, I realised very daughters wrong,” early that there are three kinds of – Dora, 17 and she asserts. power: Political power, financial 14-year-old Eavie She’s even power, and the power of fame. This – who are, helping is a more accessible power, particularly if you’re working class, than any other. “The biggest change in the last 20 years is there’s a famous class who are famous just for being famous,” she adds. “Before the turn of the century, you would have been famous just for having done something creative, like writing songs. As the gossip press got bigger, these people who just wanted to create things would be interviewed on who they’re sh***ing, what they’re eating, what’s their exercise regime and have they put on weight. We invented reality TV, and we invented people who just did the famous bit. We hived off the celebrity gossip but away from the fame and creativity bit, which was previously the only form of fame we had. That’s an incredibly benign thing to do.”