Who would it be?

You know, it's embarrassing when you're 58, but it would be my dad.

I'm still so lucky to have the most brilliant 86-year-old dad.

And he is, and I call him my harshest critic because he's ruthlessly honest, which actually is an incredibly important thing.

So he will just say it as it is.

So you just know his advice is, A, completely lined because he wants the best for me, but it's just tough and honest, and it's useful, so he's amazing.

Mm

...

Why was it important to, to sort of write a book that, that has that mix?

I think it was COVID when I wrote it, and I think it was a time when everyone was talking about mental health, and yet all the books that were on the market were lean in or kind of man up, and I didn't wanna lean in, and I didn't want-- not there's anything wrong with any of those brilliant books, but I didn't wanna man up either.

And I thought it was a time to talk about how you feel in your head.

You know, it's been an important shift that people are very honest about how they feel, to talk as someone with more experience than probably the sort of age group who were talking about mental health at that point.

And I wanted to write a kind book actually because I think there's so often people try and make everything look shiny and good, and didn't I do well, and I was, you know...

And I just thought, actually, if I wrote a really honest book about how I felt, which a lot of the time it's quite difficult.

You're juggling all of those things you spoke about, and therefore if I could be honest about how difficult it was, it would help other people who may be finding it difficult.

Totally agree.