View tag: School

Monday book review – The Good Girl by Fiona Neill

Published by Emma Lee-Potter in on Monday 27th April 2015

I’ve been a fan of Fiona Neill’s novels for ages. Her first, The Secret Life of a Slummy Mummy, based on her Times column of the same name, was an instant bestseller and she’s since written three more. The second was about a group of friends approaching their 40s and the third looked at the trials and tribulations of the modern-day nanny. Neill’s fourth novel is more ambitious and a ...keep reading

The school gate mothers

Published by Emma Lee-Potter in on Thursday 23rd May 2013

Gill Hornby’s first novel has attracted the sort of coverage that most debut novelists dream of. A former BBC producer, ex Daily Telegraph columnist and wife of superstar writer Robert Harris, she’s now written The Hive, a novel set at the school gate. Publishers were falling over themselves to buy it and after a bidding war Little, Brown snapped it up for a six-figure sum. It’s out today so I downloaded ...keep reading

Yvette Cooper, family life and dressing up for school

Published by Emma Lee-Potter in on Tuesday 12th February 2013

There’s a great interview in this week’s Grazia with Yvette Cooper, who as well as being the shadow home secretary is married to shadow chancellor Ed Balls and has three children between the ages of eight and thirteen. The best thing of all about the piece (written by Gaby Hinsliff) is that it gives a vivid glimpse of life in a hectic household, where two high-flying politicians are juggling about ...keep reading

School reunions – heaven or hell?

Published by Emma Lee-Potter in on Saturday 3rd November 2012

“You must be mad,” said my husband when I told him I was going to a reunion at my old school. “I can’t think of anything worse.” He had a point, of course. The idea of meeting up with pals from your youth more than a quarter of a century later is weird – but curiosity got the better of me. That, and a flurry of emails from friends saying ...keep reading

School Ties – a new novella set in a school

Published by Emma Lee-Potter in on Sunday 23rd September 2012

Downthorpe Hall is a posh boarding school in the wilds of the Oxfordshire countryside. Fresh from working in an inner-city comprehensive, Will Hughes has just been appointed as the new head. He knows there will be a host of challenges ahead. Tricky parents, rebellious teenagers and teachers who will fight his attempts to reform the school. He doesn’t expect a battle for his heart. But when he meets two women ...keep reading

Dressing up to the nines for the school run

Published by Emma Lee-Potter in on Thursday 12th July 2012

My school run days are long gone. But even though I’m nostalgic about those mornings when my daughter and I walked hand in hand to her North Yorkshire primary school I’m relieved about one thing. There was absolutely no pressure whatsoever to look chic at the school gate. We Iived in a windswept farming village, so the most common look for mums was mud-spattered wellies, coats and scarves. None of ...keep reading

The first and last time I cut someone’s hair

Published by Emma Lee-Potter in on Sunday 17th June 2012

Caitlin Moran is the most talented columnist of her generation – and the funniest too. When I heard her interview Ab Fab creator Jennifer Saunders recently, she was just as funny in real life as she is on the page. She’s won just about every journalistic prize going and now it looks as though she’s moving into a different stratosphere. The Guardian reported this weekend that she’s written the pilot ...keep reading

Just William – and how to succeed

Published by Emma Lee-Potter in on Tuesday 1st May 2012

School heads are a redoubtable breed. I’ve met loads in my time and most of them have bowled me over with their enthusiasm, clear-sighted focus and commitment to education. On one occasion I interviewed the super-inspiring head of a girls’ school. She wore leopard-print stilettos, knew every girl in the school by name and when she spotted a pupil using her mobile phone during school hours (strictly forbidden) showed her ...keep reading

Pyjamas – what not to wear at the school gate

Published by Emma Lee-Potter in on Sunday 20th November 2011

Mornings have never been my strong point. In the days when I took my daughter to the bus stop soon after 7am I used to rush out looking like I’d been pulled through a hedge backwards, without a scrap of make-up and my hair unbrushed. I’d then dash into Sainsbury’s to buy the papers and hope I didn’t scare the cheery man on the till or, horror of horrors, bump ...keep reading

Is four too young to start school?

Published by Emma Lee-Potter in on Sunday 4th September 2011

September is the month of new school uniform, sharpened pencils, and melancholy that the long summer holidays are over for another year. With my son starting year 13 tomorrow, his last year of school, I’m feeling extra nostalgic. It seems no time at all since his very first day, when he was a small boy with white-blond hair, a uniform that was far too big for him and a wide ...keep reading