Index of Gransnet guest blog posts

March 2012

Janet Ellis - When children leave home. Staying in touch after the nest is empty.

Anonymous - Give God a laugh, tell him your plans. Living with dementia.

Anne Mackle - Empty nest? Enjoy! Making the most of new-found freedom.

Sheena Byrom - Remember grans, mum's the word. Knowing when to keep advice to yourself.

Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall - Grandparents in Ethiopia. What it's like to be a gran in Addis Ababa.

The Women's Room - What not to wear. Fashion trends to be avoided by those who are older and wiser.

 

April 2012

Dorothy Tappenden - Living with learning disabiility. Family life with her son Robert.

Kerri Sackville - The truth about long-term love. The joys and perils of knowing your partner inside out.

Janey Fraser - Granny goes to playgroup. Looking after grandchildren can mean heading back to pre-school.

Chris Moon-Willems - Caring for Mum and Dad. Poignant experiences of looking after elderly parents.

 

May 2012

Jessica Mann - Not so good old days. Did women really have it better in the 1950s?

Ariadne - Lending a hand in South Africa. Helping out with irrigation projects in KwaZulu-Natal.

Birdsong - What I want to be when I grow up. Ambitions as a youngster - and as a gran.

Fanny Blake - Time traveller's strife. How the days seem to pass ten times faster as one gets older.

Clare Burkhill-Howarth - A love of books. Sharing the joy of reading across the generations.

 

June 2012

Beryl Kingston - Keep politicians out of education. Do parents know best when it comes to children/learning?

Janice Bhend - Long distance grandparenting. How to cope when your family moves thousands of miles away.

Jane Pearce - Dawn French, Dustin Hoffman and me. A career as a film extra when you're hitting 80.

Steph Savill - Car insurance - and women drivers. How premiums are set to rise after an EU gender ruling.

 

July 2012

Sarah Reed - Our dementia journey. How dementia changed her relationship with her mother - and her life.

Nicola Venning - Too old for festivals? Never! Why Glastonbury doesn't have to be the province of the young.

Liz Beresford - When granny went vegetarian. Explaining vegan/vegetarian choices to the grandchildren.

Jenny Bowman - Finding my family history. Tracing her family tree and finding relatives near and far.

 

August 2012

Janey Fraser - Childcare for beginners. Tales from a serial au pair employer.

Tricia Senior - Travels with my toilet seat. How public 'conveniences' can be anything but. 

Penny Dale - How I'm learning from my grandson. Inspiration for her best-selling books from a digger-mad boy.

Angela Neustatter - Why home matters. Working mums - and why home is more than bricks and mortar.

Tristan Rothwell - Getting a tattoo. How to go about it. And are you ever too old? 

 

September 2012

Christine Rola - Bread making in a windmill. A new experience - with very tasty results.

Harrikat - Ripping off the elderly. High pressure sales scams on vulnerable people.

Geraldine Bedell - Why isn't everyone online? The real reasons that people steer clear of the internet.

Katherine Fry & Rowena Kirton - Whatever happened to grammar and spelling? On declining standards.

 

October 2012

Jean Burnett - How I became an overnight success - after several decades! On finally getting published.

Joyce Hopewell - To the manor born. How she came to be born in a castle.

Joan Lockwood - Recycling - and growing your own. Making use of anything and everything in the garden.

Angela Clutton - My autumn parkin. Why there are so many delicious varieties of this treacly treat.

 

November 2012

Maxine Linnell - Now and then. Book research takes author back to the nightclubs of her youth.

La Bloggeuse - Pensioners are the future. Not a drain on society - as some would have it - but an asset.

Derek Niemann - Beatles and blackbirds. How a lifetime love of wildlife was born.

Sir Michael Parkinson - My mother and dementia. How small things can make a big difference to sufferers.

Nickie O'Hara - Five generations. On having children young - and multi generational families.

 

December 2012

Ysenda Maxtone Graham - What kind of insomniac are you? Something new to consider in the small hours.

Hilary Boyd - Gran lit. At last! A new publishing phenomenon: move over chicks - the grans are coming.

Gwenda Gofton - A cover girl at 77, From a 1950s US road trip to the cover of a brand-new book.

 

January 2013

Emma Milne - How to get a girly girl in the garden. Encouraging grand/children's love of nature.

Beth Britton - Dad, dementia and me. On her father's illness - and how children can really make a difference.

Virginia Ironside - On grandparents. And why they're so important.

Judith O'Reilly - A whole year of doing good. On trying to do a good deed every single day.

Gaby Hisliff - Grandparents and childcare. How much is too much?

Jane Maas - Why women aren't getting to the top. Is it really because they don't actually want to?

 

February 2013

Lesley Pearse - Being a writer, a mum and a gran. Combining career with family.

Denise Johnstone-Burt & Louise Jackson - Choosing a shortlist for the Gransnet (and Mumsnet) Book of Bedtime Stories.

Jessica Fox - Love letters. Falling in love...with a place.

William Nicholson - Screenwriting versus novel writing. Team work v solitude - which wins? 

Dea Birkett - Why museums matter... and they're about far more than ancient relics.

 

March 2013

Ursula Buchan - Digging for victory. Gardening during WW2.

Graham Walker - Losing my sight. Rebuilding confidence after going blind.

Sarah Wellard - Grandparents mind the childcare gap; what's going to give: pensions or childcare?

Mollie Moran - The real Downton Abbey. What life was like below stairs in the 30s.

Rupert Christiansen - Learning to love my late father. On love, loss and betrayal.

Jude Irwin - When my parents developed dementia. And the NHS can't help.

Enid Richemont - Telling tales. Is technology changing the way we read?

Daisy, Denise and Kate (Walker Books) - Tips for writing children's stories. And getting them published!

 

April 2013

Shane Spall - The river of entrapment. Nautical life...in continuous rain.

Polly Coles - Venice in peril. What it's like to live in a city swamped by tourists.

Renata Calverley - The kindness of strangers. An extraordinary childhood on the run from the Nazis.

Sabine Durrant - Changing faces in the park. People, places and the passage of time.

Diana Green - Marathon running...at 78. It's never too late to take up sport.

Deborah Moggach - Looking for love. Playing the dating game at 50+

Anna Wallas - All you need is a good man. Did the feminists really have it all wrong?

Victoria Williams - Why I love the 5:2 diet. Intermittent fasting and losing weight.

 

May 2013

Julie Summers - Hitler, marigolds and the golden thread. The WI during WW2.

Kate Figes - On infidelity. Why do people have affairs? And can you ever get over being cheated on?

Rosie Goodwin - How to write a novel. Top tips from the bestselling author.

Sally Curtis - Going it alone. Coping with the first year of widowhood.

Caroline Flint - Call the midwife! Delivering nine of her 12 grandchildren.

Jolyon Connell - The Great Gatsby. How good a novel is this slim and largely plotless book?