Life Lessons from Remarkable Women by Stylist Magazine

Author:Stylist Magazine
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780241322833
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2017-10-31T16:00:00+00:00

When I was a child people were always dishing out advice. If a neighbour saw you mowing the lawn, they’d wander over and give you a tip. Sometimes it would be reasonable. Sometimes it’d be no more than a vague thought, and on a bad day it would be the type of advice that contradicts commonly held beliefs.

Some advice, like that from my granny, wasn’t meant for anyone in particular but came from some strange moment in her own history (never trust a man who drives in a hat). Some wasn’t advice so much as superstition (never cross on the stairs or you’ll never marry). There was deliberately bad advice that siblings might give each other for entertainment (touch that electric fence, it won’t hurt). And my mother’s equally bad but well-meant (just tell the teacher how you feel) type advice, which never quite worked because she lived in a dream world in which teachers were nice.

As I grew up I was able tell these different types of advice apart. I stopped respecting all advice equally, and believing that giving advice was in itself a sign of wisdom.

Nowadays, as a writer in my fifties, I’m often asked what advice I’d give to budding writers. The short answer is: read a lot and write a lot. Also, if there’s time, I might mention that although I’ve been writing all my life, I got my first book contract at the age of fifty, and I might well add that it was taking advice that caused the delay!

I peaked intellectually around the age of ten and my writing style was at its best back then. I wrote naturally, from experience, about real people – my mother, my sister and brothers, Princess Anne and various neighbours. Occasionally I might give them imaginary things to do but I never had them flying in the air or going back in time. I only had them falling in love or out of a window, things they might actually do.

I felt all set for a writer’s life. In fact, positive feedback from my first few teachers at junior school caused me to give up on early dreams of becoming a lady jockey. I reckoned I was as good a writer as rider, if not better, plus I’d heard about lady jockeys being only allowed to eat lettuce leaves and diet biscuits – and that sounded too grim.

My writing confidence took a knock however when a new teacher, I’ll call her ‘Miss Long’, gave me a mediocre review for my true-life story about the dangers of men who drove wearing hats. Any writer knows that a mediocre review is almost worse than a bad review because you can’t pass it off as a grudge! Not only did Miss Long give me a mediocre review but she also gave me two pieces of advice:

Firstly, I should not use the same word twice – if I wanted to reiterate that sunlight was shimmering on the lake I should find a different word.

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