Kate Spicer

1. Please tell us a bit about yourself and your work.

I am a freelance journalist and have been, pretty much, since 1992. I have also made documentaries for TV and also for the big screen (Mission to Lars, 2012). I cannibalise my life with first-person stories regularly.

 

2. Has writing always been a focus for you or was it a Plan B?

It seemed to be what I should do from a young age, 19 or so. I think that being a broke and frequently drunk freelance journalist, possibly with undiagnosed ADHD of some sort and a history of ordinary 70s hostile divorce childhood trauma, contributed massively to me not having kids

 

3. How do you explore ideas or find inspiration for your work?

I keep an eye on the news, and sniff the wind around me to see trends and shifts in lifestyle behaviour among my contemporaries and people within my cultural eye line. I also do interviews and some health writing.

 

4. What does the process of writing involve for you?

A lot of procrastination, a lot of crossing and uncrossing my legs. Research, obviously.

 

5. And what does writing then also give you in return?

An income. Some kind of validation. Relative freedom. Though it feels less and less like that the poorer I get.

 

6. Has seeing your work in print changed how you view yourself, and also how you view your NoMo status?
I went through a spate of writing pieces about having no kids, In the Mail, Sunday Times mostly. They were about regrets around that and related issues. It was amazing how hostile other women could be towards me. I just said how I felt. The Mail gave it a horrible headline. Hey ho. I felt, also, like the Daily Mail wanted me to write it so their readers could enjoy judging me, but who knows. Google "Kate Spicer, childless" and see what comes up.

 

7. Tell us about the wider reception that you’ve had to sharing your story - has it changed how others have viewed you and your identity as a non-parent?
I don’t identify as a non-parent. I am just me.
 

8. How do you feel about the current representation of childless and/or childfree people in literature?

Barren spinsters were quite a thing back in the day, weren’t they? Witches. Nowadays, I’m not sure about the representation. That they’re ruthless, selfish, career women or desperate IVF victims.

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9. What would you like the publishing world to know about non-parents, both as writers and readers, and our stories?

I don’t think I need them to know anything. I find the victim narrative around women not having kids quite nauseating. I say what I feel but don’t expect special treatment - there are many different types of women and many different types of women without kids. They are not some definable personality demographic. However, see answer below, it is of some relevance to this question.

10. What future plans do you have, especially for your writing?

I’d like to get on and write my second memoir. I sometimes worry that it won’t be relatable because the story will not chime with other women’s of my age experience. The story involves a lot of peripatetic behaviour and that would not be possible if I were a mother. Therefore perhaps it would not be seen as an every woman story with a wide possible audience in the way, say, I Don’t Know How She Does It, was.