Seven interesting facts about me, by Kristen Bailey

7 February 2022

Kristen Bailey opens up in an exclusive piece for Female First

Mother-of-four, gin-drinker, binge-watcher, receipt hoarder, enthusiastic but terrible cook. Kristen Bailey also writes. She has had short fiction published in several publications including Mslexia and Riptide. Her first two novels, Souper Mum and Second Helpings were published in 2016. In 2019, she was long listed in the Comedy Women in Print Prize and has since joined the Bookouture family. She writes women's fiction and she hopes her novels have fresh and funny things to say about modern life, love and family.

Her latest release, Am I Allergic to Men? is out now, and to celebrate, Kristen has opened up in an exclusive piece for Female First, detailing some interesting facts all about her. Here's what she had to reveal...

1. I started writing after the birth of my first son. I had a wild birth (not filled with horror, I got drunk on the gas and air and started yodelling for the midwife) and I thought and hoped it would be a humorous opening to a book. That first writing became the eventual prologue to Did My Love Life Shrink In The Wash? It was heavily edited because there are some things readers really don’t need to know.

2. My husband is from Kendal near the Lake District and he’s the inspiration for Danny Morton in Has Anyone Seen My Sex Life? He loves the outdoors, he speaks in Northern and believes in the healing power of a cuppa tea. He even wears a flat cap and is very good at drawing. Can I Give My Husband Back? I don’t really want to.

3. I went to university in Bristol and it became the setting for How Much Wine Will Fix My Broken Heart? If you were there around 1998-2001, I was most likely that girl you saw rolling out of Steam Rock wearing the combats and her actual bra. As in the book, I know someone who did fall in the docks, steaming drunk. His name was Henry. Fear not, he is still alive.

4. I don’t have four sisters but I have four children and all their names are mentioned in my books somewhere. As a mum, writing is catharsis. Motherhood is exhausting, busy but lordy, there are so many good stories, wonderful snippets of dialogue they come out with and brilliant anecdotes that are too good not to share. None of my kids have ever bitten anyone at the school gate though. They only bite each other.

5. Which of the Callaghan sisters am I? I am a combination of all of them really but I’d say I’m a lot like Beth. We both like our music, we believe pineapple belongs on pizza and we really need to stop washing our faces with shower gel. My sister is an Emma and she’s the most organised person I know. She has one of those folding mats for her T-shirts.

6. Am I Allergic To Men? No. I get awful hayfever though. The sort where I keep tissue companies in business for two months of the year. My eyes also go funny if I see people wearing double denim or smart loafers without socks.

7. I asked my youngest daughter for a fun fact about me to end this. ‘What is interesting about Mummy that you think people might like to know?’ She thinks that I should tell you all that I’m not a very good dancer. What does she know, she’s seven...