Hot! - 2026

You know what’s weird?

The way we women sometimes don’t tell the truth about the important bits to each other.

About love (it takes work); weddings (the colour of the napkins doesn’t matter at all – it’s the marriage that counts); about kids (that breastfeeding is damn sore to start with, and that kids are monstrously selfish and you will long for the person you used to be – until you love them more than you used to love you); about sex (I should probably have brought that up before kids, since it may not be relevant after them). You know what I mean…

And now we’re hitting midlife. And if I have to see another picture of another bloody overblown rose with the petals falling off in my search for information, I may have to take a hostage. I’m tired of asking women my age if they’re having botox or considering HRT or waking up at 3am every night and getting evasive answers. I know they’re personal questions, but if we can’t get down and dirty and personal and honest with each other, what’s it all about?

And that’s why we made HOT! The Grown-up’s Guide to Midlife. It’s about becoming invisible, about hot flushes at totally inappropriate moments, about not sleeping, about inexplicable cake cravings, about drinking barrels of bubbly, about HRT or not, about friends and lovers and loss and time… all of it. It’s honest, it’s funny, it’s full of good info: it’s basically the conversation that all of us need to have with each other. And I’m afraid there is just the one pic of a drooping rose, but it was appropriate, you’ll see!