Invisible Women: IWD Special

No one does cardio five days a week

Good morning, GFPs, and a very womanly International Women’s Day to you! As promised I have a round-up of some of the exciting things your fellow GFPs are up to, but FIRST!

This week I was so proud to be able to attend the launch of the incredible memoir by my brilliant friend Tracy King: LEARNING TO THINK.

Here is one of the few publishable selfies I managed to take of us on the night:

Tracy is one of the most inspiring people I know (as well as one of the cleverest, funniest and kindest). Her life story is astonishing: one of resilience, bravery, and smashing the odds despite everything thrown at her — and there was a lot. It’s also about how she learnt (or, more accurately, taught herself) to think critically, and how that ultimately was to change not only her life, but also what she thought she knew about one of the most formative events of her life: the sudden, violent death of her beloved father.

Deservedly, her memoir has been getting rave reviews. The Sunday Times called it “gripping”, the Times Literary Supplement called it “powerful”, Woman’s Own called it “earth-shattering”, Tim Minchin called it “devastating”, Lee effin Child (yes the ACTUAL Lee Child!!) called it “fantastic”, and I called it “raw and unflinching” because I get two words instead of one I’m in charge around here don’t you know. Oh and the i named it one of its best books for March, while Stylist said that it was “impossible not to read in one sitting”.

In conclusion, if there’s one book you buy for IWD, (other than mine of course, come on, I’m practically contractually obliged to say that) let it be this one.

You can buy it at all good and some not so good bookshops too. Here are links for a few: Waterstones, Blackwells, Amazon, and Bookshop.org if you want to support your local indy bookshop (although you might also like to just call them up and order it in).

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An IWD Miracle!

In other news! I was delighted to discover that women need to do less exercise than men for the same or even greater cardiovascular benefit. That’s according to a new study that did those of us ladies who are lazy the courtesy of sex disaggregating its research data and this lazy lady thanks them from the bottom of her lazy heart. VINDICATED every time I choose that shorter class on my exercise app.

And by the way, when they say less, they mean A LOT less. “For all adults engaging in any regular physical activity, compared to being inactive,” said Dr Susan Chen, senior study author, mortality risk was lower — but it was notably more so for women compared with men (a reduction of 24% versus 15% respectively). As for more vigorous