To celebrate the release of her brilliant new book On A White Horse, which details how she used memorialisation to overcome her grief following the death of her husband, author Cathy Phelan-Watkins has written an exclusive piece for Female First, revealing 10 things she'd like all of her readers to know about her.
Cathy Phelan-Watkins writes for Female First
1. I started training for a half marathon at the age of 55 to support a friend who was raising money for charity and found out that I love running. Brilliant for mind and body.
2. You don’t ‘get over’ losing someone you love. It is more a question of learning to live with the pain.
3. I am happiest in my studio first thing in the morning. Daytime TV on in the background and a sense of infinite possibility. A close second would be sitting at my computer with a freshly made coffee and something important to say. Writing feels like drawing to me. It’s all about observing the world around me and capturing it as accurately as I can.
4. I am a feminist which is unfortunately an often misunderstood term, especially amongst young women. For me it simply means that I believe in equality and freedom for all sexes.
5. Blood is not thicker than water. I value my friendships immensely and have found in most cases that they improve with passing years.
6. I love shoes and when deciding what to wear I usually start from the feet up. I must admit I tend to avoid anything too high these days preferring something I can stomp around in with comfort.
7. The key to survival is being able to embrace change. This is something I learnt as a child from my grandfather who never stopped being curious or inventive throughout his nineties.
8. I sometimes forget to find time to relax. Actually cleaning the house is a good way to do this and not feel that I should be doing something else. The smell of bees wax is so good.
9. The best cure for loneliness is to do something for someone else. For me this often takes the form of cooking. I am a feeder at heart!
10. I love exploring new places. I find getting lost in cities quite exhilarating as long as it is daytime and the weather isn’t too bad.
Cathy Phelan-Watkins releases her new book On A White Horse tomorrow (October 23).