Sheffield-bound tomorrow for International Women's Week!

http://www.shef.ac.uk/union/going-out/flash/?event=20456

Here's my latest column for The Daily Beast

Straight-A Anorexics: Are Britain’s Private Schools Breeding Grounds For Anorexia?A new report claims that the perfectionistic, highly competitive environment of the UK’s top academies are making students prone to teen eating disorders...

This wasn’t news to me. From the ages of 11-18, I attended London’s top private girls’ school, along with both my sisters. Although I didn’t develop anorexia until the year after I left, I’m conscious that I conform to the anorexic stereotype: perfectionist, insecure, driven. The latest media reports outline precisely those same characteristics: academic and highly competitive. Individuals develop eating disorders for a range of complex reasons, of course—but of the hundreds of woman and men I have met with anorexia, every one conforms to this profile.

Why should the compulsion to excel—which propels these privileged students to Oxford. Cambridge, Harvard and Yale, among other top universities—also make them acutely vulnerable to eating disorders? To me it makes perfect, dangerous sense that intelligent, driven girls are prone to anorexia. They excel not just at English and Math, Drama and Science and Music, but also at exercise and weight-loss. They strive to be beautiful, popular, self-disciplined, and yes, thin.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/03/03/are-britain-s-private-schools-breeding-grounds-for-anorexia.html

Very excited to announce that my first novel is publishing soon! It's coming out exclusively on Kindle, so that's Amazon-only :-)

WAYS OF ESCAPE by Emma Woolf

http://www.piqwiq.co.uk/piqwiq-emma-woolf-ways-of-escape.html

Latest Newsweek column - how to be your own Valentine

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/02/15/the-great-valentine-s-day-hangover.html

"What will survive of us is love.”

 

She lay for a considerable time looking blankly at the wall opposite, her hands clasped above her heart, and her light burning by her side. All articulate thought had long ago deserted her; her heart seemed to have grown to the size of a sun, and to illuminate her entire body, shedding like the sun a steady tide of warmth.

"I'm happy, I'm happy, I'm happy," she repeated. "I love every one. I'm happy."
The Voyage Out, Virginia Woolf

My Transformational Retreat: how neurofeedback, yoga & mindfulness changed my life!

Full article here, Mail on Sunday, 9th February 2014 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-2551707/I-learn-lose-control.html

latest column here http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/02/03/thai-curry-therapy-at-london-s-l-atelier-des-chefs.html

We learn how to dice an onion into perfect, tiny cubes (the secret is not to remove the root when you peel the skin). We learn how to de-vein prawns; how to blend ginger, lime, garlic, turmeric, Tamarind, cumin and cardamom for an awesome marinade; how to deseed a fiery-hot chili; how to make perfectly fluffy Jasmine rice; how to handle a blow-torch… these are indeed life skills.
At the end of the course, we sit down at a beautifully laid table, along with plenty of wine, to sample the fruits of our labours. The lemongrass and ginger crème brulee is divine...