The Candy Club

A teaser post of what is coming next if you join The Candy Club

I’m Lorraine Candy, married mum-of-four, journalist, parenting columnist, midlife podcaster, best-selling author of “Mum, What’s Wrong With you?” and former editor of Cosmopolitan, Elle and Sunday Times Style. Join The Candy Club for life advice and things to make you smile. 

 Welcome to the first meeting of The Candy Club. Thanks for signing up, team – it’s great to have you on board. Though of course many of you know me already. I have, after all, spent my career – three decades of it - immersed in the company of women.

What I’m hoping to do here is create a community of curious, like-minded women, who can support each other as they move through daily life; a confidence-boosting, thought-provoking network to make each of us feel less alone in the more challenging moments of our work and home lives, the moments where we may feel we have lost our voice or that we’re slowly going crazy, those indecisive moments when we need help from women who know more, or who have been through it before.

Belonging to The Candy Club will not only be about sharing our stories and experiences, it will be about learning from each other and harnessing all that useful advice from the experts I interview on our podcast Postcards from Midlife and for my parenting books. This newsletter will be packed with stuff “you oughtta know”, as Alanis Morissette once sang. 

The Candy Club will also be where you’ll find all my writing – my parenting experience (three teens and a ten year old), my interviews with experts, chats with celebrities, authors and thinkers, voice notes to make you laugh and video guides trouble-shooting the challenges we all face from time to time (that’s if I can work the technology!).

I’ll be tackling everything from toddler tantrums to empty-nesting, skincare to fashion and fitness, career conundrums to office politics, sex & dating dilemmas to understanding female friendships. I’ll be featuring witty, motivational content that will make you think about things in a different way; gently nudge you in the direction of books that may change your life; and introduce you to inspirational women who light the way for us all.

You can dip in and out for the guidance that grabs your attention or that works for the stage of life you’re at right now. I mentor women of all ages, from all generations and backgrounds, absorbing their wisdom and experiences, so I can share this with you all as we go along.

There will be no moaning, no navel-gazing, no judgement. As anyone who knows me will tell you, I am a straightforward, no-nonsense, get-a-grip kind of person, so there’ll be no uplifting memes or exhortations to drink eight glasses of water a day from me, just thoughtful, kind, smart, practical guidance. Much of it will be free, but some of it will be paid for – you can choose what you want, no pressure.

However you know me, I promise we’ll have a much more intimate relationship here. Maybe we’ll even get to chat in person during the workshops I plan to hold (there will be biscuits!) and I’ll certainly be hosting “Ask me anything” sessions to answer your specific queries.

So here’s a little taster of some of the stuff coming up for us to discuss in The Candy Club:

1)    What’s wrong with me? I’m suddenly frightened of driving, heights and other everyday activities I’ve done a million times before (or ‘how to rediscover your confidence’). Exploring the illogical wobbles outwardly capable women sometimes experience.

2)    How to get a book deal, change jobs, find a new career or change your attitude to the one you have.

3)    Five life lessons from the brand-new female friends I found after the age of 45.

4)    Sunday nights are the worse: the sadness of the new-found empty-nest mum.

5)    When can my ten-year-old walk home alone and other rites-of-passage moments on the parenting journey.

@lorrainecandy on Instagram

Things I do just FYI

I am a parenting columnist and author of The Sunday Times Top 10 best Seller: “Mum, what’s wrong with you; 101 things only the mothers of teenage girls know” . The paper back is out now. My book has been reviewed as a comforting guide for all those struggling to live with and love their adolescent children. It’s part memoir, part interviews with experts.

Mum What's Wrong With You

I am co-host Postcards From Midlife The podcast with Trish Halpin where we interview women and experts on their midlife experience, we’ve had everyone from Elizabeth Hurley, Caitlin Moran, Marian Keyes, Ruby Wax to firebrand MP Carolyn Harris, breast cancer surgeon professor Michael Baum and the London Mayor Sadiq Khan on the five season show which has had millions of downloads.

Postcards from Midlife

Me & co-host Trish Halpin

Love open water, or cold water swimming and write a lot about how it saved my sanity when I had a bit of a wobble in my mid forties: Read about it here:

Cold water dips saved me

I am one of the five judges of the Womens Prize For Fiction 2022 and have read over 70 new books in the last few months so watch this space for a book list to beat all book lists!