What is And a Dog?

If you love memoir, you’re in the right place - because I am obsessed with it.

I write memoir, I teach it, I mentor it, and I have just finished writing a book called INTO BEING: The radical craft of memoir and its power to transform - which will be published by MUP in October, 2025.

It is part memoir, part practical guide on writing memoir, and part about memoir’s theory, and you can pre-order it here.

Here on my Substack I run a monthly teaching session, called Memoir WIP Surgery where I choose a topic - usually a stumbling block for those of you writing memoir, like ethical anxieties, or how to use research, or manage the dual narrative that makes up much of memoir - and teach a bit and chair discussions with a growing and thriving community of other writers of personal narrative. I also write a weekly piece on whatever has caught my eye that week - often writing or family related, sometimes topical - and starting in April I will write a weekly teaching session to accompany Memoir WIP Surgery. So paid subscribers get a lot for their buck!

Running up to publication of INTO BEING, there will be a chance to take part in prizes, and to have sneaky peaks of extracts, and even proofs! As well as being part of this brilliant and supportive community.

Here are a few things that people have said about INTO BEING:

My debut memoir Sins of My Father: A Daughter, A Cult, A Wild Unravelling – was published by W&N to great critical acclaim, and was The Guardian and The Spectator Book of the Year 2022.

Click on the subscribe button if you are interested in writing or publishing memoir, and want to learn more about how a book is made, from initial idea, to commission, to watching it come alive. How do we protect ourselves and our family when we write personal stuff? What does it feel like to have your work out there in the world? Subscribe to get full access to the newsletter and publication archives.

For now subscriptions cost £7.50 a month of £45 a year. But this is an experiment, so I am open to revisiting it as we go along. A paid sub gets you a lot more content: the inside experience of writing for publication, from submission to when the book is finally out there, lots of juicy stuff about memoir and its wonders, open group discussion threads to help build a network of support; a monthly live Zoom surgery. Lots of other random things, like amazing books I’m reading.

I am so grateful to all my readers and really look forward to learning more about what you are up to and what you hope to achieve.