‘I’ve realised what I do with my life is more important than what I look like’
FOR 20 years, Susannah Constantine helped make over thousands of women around the world with her pal, Trinny Woodall.
These days there is more chance of seeing Susannah in a field wearing old jeans and welly boots (dragging tractor tyres to get fit in preparation for an adventure to the South Pole next year, in case you’re wondering) than there is of seeing her on TV looking glamorous and imparting fashion wisdom.
The 55-year-old’s life isn’t what you would expect of one half of Trinny and Susannah, but she’s more content than she has been for a long time and a lot of that is down to her completing her debut novel, After The Snow.
She tapped into some repressed childhood memories about her mum, who was manic depressive, when working on the book and has come out the other side feeling stronger and surer of herself.
The mum-of-three even goes so far as to call it an “epiphany”. Just don’t expect to see her back on the telly making anyone over anytime soon.
“That’s not something I would do again, 100%, categorically no,” she insists.
“The idea of a TV camera in my face fills me with horror. If I did do TV again, it would need to be journalistically-based, something hard-hitting or a voyage of discovery.
“Trinny and I had an amazing time doing what we did, but it would be like flogging a dead horse now.
“We presented the show for seven years overseas – all over Australia, New Zealand, India, Scandinavia, Israel, America and Benelux.
“It was amazing and such a privilege to go to these places, make friends and understand the cultures.
“But then it all dried up, like these things do, and we haven’t worked together on TV for three years now.
“We stay in touch and she is still a big part of my life. We are extremely close and speak to each other all the time.”
Susannah’s adventurous side is coming to the fore instead.
She was a contestant on I’m A Celebrity… and last year she went on a dog sled expedition to the Arctic. Now she’s signed up to go to the South Pole.
“I don’t know what it is that drives me to do these things,” she muses, then adds: “I think it’s a self-esteem thing, always wanting to achieve something more.
“I think it derives from low self-esteem and I can’t do it with clothes or appearance anymore, as I’m too old.
“The guy I went to the Arctic with put my name forward for the South Pole.
“It’s going to be an all-female team and the leader is 72. She has three world records so I’m in good hands.
“I don’t want to say too much about it in case I bottle it! We’ll see how the training goes – I might soon be pulling tractor tyres around! There’s been talk of going to Norway before Christmas to do some training on skis, but I hate skiing. I’m terrified of it.
“I might come to Scotland to train as well.”
Susannah is a huge fan of Scotland and visits regularly. It’s also where she set her novel.
“I’m just back from Blair Atholl, which is my favourite place on earth,” she reveals.
“I go to Scotland a lot – we take a little house up there in Perthshire and have done every year for many, many years.
My heart is in Scotland. One day I may relocate there
“I went with my parents when I was younger and we’ve carried on the tradition for 40 years.
“We come up with a group of friends and go hiking. I love Glen Tilt, which is beautiful,” she smiles.
“I think my heart is in Scotland and maybe one day I’ll relocate there.”
Susannah lives in rural Sussex with husband Sten and children, Esme, Joe and Cece.
“Rural life is part of me and I’ve always preferred it to the city,” she adds.
“When I travel abroad I enjoy going to foreign cities, but I come out in hives whenever I need to go to London.
“I feel a sense of satisfaction in the countryside.”
It’s also where she wrote her novel, After The Snow, which is out this week.
Described as being perfect for fans of Downton Abbey and The Crown, it’s the untold story of the scandalous elite during the ’60s.
Susannah smiles: “I feel a great sense of satisfaction in writing a novel and securing a publisher.
“I achieved what I wanted to do and hopefully people will wish to read it, but if not I will keep persevering, improving and honing my writing.
“Some little girls want to be ballerinas or nurses, but I always wanted to be an author.
“I’ve written for newspapers and done non-fiction books, but I never thought I had the imagination for fiction.
“When Trinny and I were writing the fashion books, she would do the production and I did the writing, and our editor said I wrote like a novelist rather than a journalist.
“She put me in touch with the head of fiction at Orion but I told him I didn’t know what to write about.
“He asked me about my childhood and I told him there was this one 30-second moment that always stuck with me.
“One time when I looked at my mum from across the dining room table she was having a manic depressive episode. As she took a drink, I saw the demon of the illness distort her face through the glass.
“He told me to write 3000 words about that – this was a long time ago, about 10 years – and sporadically I would add to it.
“The novel is autobiographical to a degree, but the situation, setting and characters are completely fictional.”
So how does someone so active find the discipline to sit down and write a novel?
“At home I don’t have much of a routine, although I like to listen to loud music while I’m writing and I will always have sharpened pencils on the desk, even though I’m working on a laptop. “If nothing is happening I’ll go for a walk. “I wanted it to be perfect first time every time and I need to learn it doesn’t work like that. I think that boiled down to confidence and being a novice. “The hard work came in the edits. “I went away for 10 days on my own and found a rhythm. I would get up at 8am and go for a run, work until lunch, watch an episode of a box set, and then write again until 6pm.
“For the next book I have chapter outlines and completed some research already, which I’ve been told will make it easier this time.
“As soon as I have the headspace and nothing else to worry about – no bills to pay or meals to cook – I’d like to go away for a week to get it started.”
Mum was manic depressive, I saw the demon of her illness
Earlier this year, Susannah wrote a newspaper article about realising she had turned into the sort of woman she and Trinny used to make over, with a wardrobe full of illadvised clothes.
“That article was so heartfelt and I felt so bad about myself,” she admits.
“I don’t know what’s changed since, but I feel I’ve come out the other side.
“Maybe it’s the process of writing the book and thinking about my mother and the feelings and relationship I had with her.
“Getting to 55, I’ve realised what I’m doing with my life is more important than what I look like.
“I want to have more to talk about than the usual daily life or what sort of saucepan I use.”
But she also dotes on her kids and speaks glowingly about them.
“My son might go to St Andrews to study marine biology.
“My eldest daughter is sitting her A-levels but can’t make up her mind about what she wants to do. She’s studying history of art, psychology and English – which is her best subject, but she hates reading. She is amazing with people.
“And Cece, my youngest, wants to be Idris Elba in Luther! That, or criminology.
“She’s a brilliant writer. She wrote a 500-word short story for a competition Chris Evans was running on Radio 2 and got down to the final 25 out of hundreds of entries. It was a really good story.
“I think she’ll end up in film, directing or producing, because she’s incredibly bossy!
She adds: “As long as they do what makes them happy, I’ll be pleased.”
It’s a motto Susannah is living her own life by these days – with great results.
After The Snow is published by HQ on Nov 2.