Dawn OPorter - Life in Pieces

DAWN OPORTER lives in Los Angeles with her husband Chris, her two boys Art and Valentine, and her cat Lilu and dog Potato. Dawn started out in TV production but quickly landed in front of the camera, making numerous documentaries for the BBC and Channel 4, the most famous being her immersive investigations of polygamy, size zero, childbirth, free love, breast cancer and the movie Dirty Dancing.

Dawn is now a full-time, Sunday Times bestselling author of seven books who, at the time of writing, never leaves the house.

www.dawnoporter.co.uk

/DawnOPorter

@hotpatooties

@hotpatooties

Australia

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United Kingdom

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United States

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Im going to keep these brief as I mentioned so many of the people I love in the book itself, and hopefully that shows my appreciation. But on top of that

Thanks so much to everyone at HarperCollins for making this book happen. I have no idea how we turned that blog into a book, but we did. Specific shout-outs to Charlotte and Kimberley for being the dream editing team. Liz for getting the book out there, and Claire for the cover.

Thanks to my agent, Adrian Sington, who has been there from the start and who I adore so much.

Thanks to Josie, for so many things. I couldnt have done those weeks without you. I love you.

Thanks to each and every one of my Patreon subscribers. I LOVE writing the blog for you, and when I look back on isolation, if it ever ends, you will be a massive part of it. Thank you for the support and I will continue to keep my fingers fingering for you.

And mostly, thanks to Chris, Art, Valentine, Lilu, Potato and Hippo. My isolation team. I couldnt have done it with anyone else. Team O. The best. Im very lucky that youre mine.

FICTION

The Cows

So Lucky

Look out for Dawn OPorters fresh, frank and very funny fiction.

These Sunday Times bestsellers are available to buy now.

Click here to buy now

[THE COWS [ePub edition] 978-0-00-812604-9]

Click here to buy now

[SO LUCKY [ePub edition] 978-0-00-812608-7]

Hosted by Dawn OPorter

*Arent we all so bloody lucky?*

But, often, we only get to see one version of someone and usually only the best. In this fast, funny, frank new podcast series, Dawn OPorter peels back the layers with a variety of guests to explore all the sides to their stories; the good and the bad, the ups and downs, the lucky and the unlucky moments.

Therell be a new episode once a week, so hit subscribe in your favourite podcast app to get each one as it drops!

Dear 2020,

Earlier this year I got myself a paper diary. I wanted to go back to writing things down, rather than having everything on my phone. I found it today and got so sad when I saw how empty it was. Just months of nothing. No people, no meetings, no life. I sat and looked at it and got a little weepy. There was supposed to be all this other stuff, and it just wasnt there. There was only emptiness.

As always, in January, I started the year with great intentions and felt good about what was heading my way. I wanted a better balance of deadlines and parenting. Wed just returned from Christmas in Ireland and, while the rest of the world dieted, I continued to eat like my life depended on it until my forty-first birthday on 23 January (feel free to write that down). Its always my most greedy month, because as soon as New Year is done, I get into birthday mode. I celebrate a lot every year. Multiple dinners and events, Ive always been the same. Delighted to reach another age, excited to be healthy and (generally) happy. My birthday passed and I remained committed to making small improvements to my life none of which involved more exercise, less food or smaller measures of tequila, but I had deleted Instagram from my phone (lasted a week). Id started to search for a therapist to iron out the many creases that form by the time you hit your forties.

All in all, I was ready to continue to ride through this decade with a margarita in one hand and novels spouting from the fingers of the other. As Chris and I rose from the swamp of having babies we wanted to party more, dance more, write more and fuck more. Everything was on track for life to become really fun. Id waft drunkenly through my forties, hosting parties in our garden, wearing vibrant kaftans, living off tequila and weed gummies. That was how it was going to be. Until that one Saturday morning when I woke up and everything went dark.

My friend Caroline Flack took her own life on 15 February. She was my funniest friend. It broke me. I remain unfixed. One of the worst things I could imagine happening had happened. All plans stopped. My forties were off.

This isnt a book about Caroline, what happened to her or why. But to understand my emotional experiences of lockdown, you need to know how it began. I was grieving, and in a pretty terrible way. I quit Twitter. I refused to read the tabloids, or even listen to negativity. I wanted to be alone. I wanted to isolate (careful what you wish for). I wanted my life to be smaller (not that small, thanks Covid-19). Something seismic had happened to me and a lot of the people I love. The world could never be the same again, and then suddenly, it wasnt. During that weird space of time between losing Caroline and isolation kicking in, I felt like I was in a world full of people who would never understand me again. Most of my friends were in London, my husband, Chris, and I were in LA in our own sad and cloudy bubble. I felt a million miles from home, but was also terrified of returning to London for the emotional memories it would throw at me. Caroline is embedded into those streets, how could I ever walk down them without screaming?