Holly Bourne: The Alternative Version of 'Happily Ever After'

This week I have the absolute pleasure of speaking to one of my favourite authors, Holly Bourne. After beginning her novel-writing career in the young adult genre, Holly has released three brilliant titles for adults over the past few years, which are full of wise reflections on relationships, navigating social pressure and recovering from trauma. She’s influenced, in part, by the five years she spent working as an online agony aunt for a youth charity, specialising in relationships and mental health, and her present role as the youth ambassador for Women’s Aid. Her honest, empathetic writing has made me, and so many other that I know, feel less alone – saying that, I can’t wait to see what she has to say about alone time, and what it means to her. We discuss, among other things: Why her heroines' 'happy endings' always involve them finding a greater degree of love for themselvesHow Holly learnt to enjoy taking herself out for dinnerHow female friendship can offer a 'safe space' away from the male gazeThe challenge of adjusting to a new relationship after being happily-single for a periodYou can order Holly's latest book, Girlfriends, now on Bookshop.org.You can also order my book, Alonement: How To Be Alone and Absolutely Own It, which is based on this very podcast, now from Amazon and Waterstones. Thank you so much to Flash Pack for sponsoring this season of the podcast. Flash Pack is a travel company that offers boutique group adventures for solo travellers in their 30s and 40s. Visit flashpack.com/alonement to learn more and quote ALONEMENT at check-out for £100 off your first trip. Twitter:*  @ChezSpecter@hollybourne_YA*Instagram: *@ChezSpecter@hollybourneya*Contact: [email protected] With a one-off payment of £5, you can listen to the Alonement podcast ad-free. https://plus.acast.com/s/alonement. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.