About Me — Helen Redfern
Blogging changed my life. It might’ve even saved my life.
When I was in my late teens and early twenties I thought I knew what I wanted to be. I wanted to be a city career woman loosely based on Melanie Griffiths in Working Girl. With Carly Simon singing in my head I would confidentially hop onto the District Line from my flat near Westminster and stride through the City of London wearing my suit with my trainers.
This was what I’d always wanted to be. This was why I took an extra A-level in my gap year, this was why I studied business at university and this was why I headed to London, from the Midlands, and via Bristol, once my degree was in the bag.
When I became pregnant with my son my perspective changed. Working for people who weren’t particularly pleasant was not as important to me anymore. With suspected pre-eclampsia, I took early maternity leave.
And spent my days wondering who the hell I was if I wasn’t a career woman.
This search to discover who I was introduced me to the craft of writing. I mean, I’ve been writing all my life, but writing for fun, for clarity, and for exploration was new to me.
I started to write a novel. Which got pushed to one side once my baby boy was born. But a few months later I returned to the novel…
