Louise Candlish

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Countdown with ...

Louise Candlish

Louise Candlish finds it convenient to call herself a northerner (born in the northeast to Geordie parents), a Midlander (grew up in Northampton) and a Londoner (resident for 33 years), according to who she’s talking to and why. She has done enough awful and crazy jobs (running a rollercoaster ride dressed as an astronaut; teaching tennis with a sponge ball) to appreciate the writing gig as the best in the world.

She has a chequered past – juvenile delinquent, party animal, compulsive giggler, including one outburst, on stage, during a sixth-form performance of Blithe Spirit – but now, in middle age, relishes being a grown-up. Fervently anti-anti-ageing, she can’t bear to see actresses do stuff to their skin that makes them look like they’ve been carved out of soap.

Louise uses a CBT technique to combat the terrors of the current political climate by imagining Roger Federer as president of the world. She has not missed an episode of The Archers in 16 years.

Interviewed 14 March 2020

Ten words to sum up your working life to date ...

Shop-girl
Coach
Waitress
Ride-operator
Assistant
Editor
Copywriter
Novelist
Optimist
Catastrophist

Nine things you can see from where you're sitting ...

Fox-red Labrador puppy (Bertie)
Coffee machine
Overflowing bin I forgot to take out last night
Print of The Escalator by Cyril Power
Photo of my daughter in infant school
Photo of our black Lab Maggie on the beach before she died
Savaged sock
Wrapper of a Reese’s Nut Bar
Roll of Scotch tape

Eight minutes to prepare a meal. What's it going to be ?

I could probably just about do my prawn taco lettuce wraps in that time.

Seven people you'd like to go for a drink with ...

Debbie Harry
Jane Birkin
William Langewiesche (journalist)
Margaret Atwood
John McEnroe
Roger Federer
Lana del Rey
(Do you think they’ll all get on?)

Six things you can't live without ...

Bed
Bathtub
Coffee machine
Books
Phone (for music)
My big Aigle down-filled coat

Five favourite words ...

Bizarre
Monstrous
Ludicrous
Squeamish
Oboe

Four places you'd run away to ...

Ile de Ré
Sicily
New York
Kyoto

Three books you've bought recently ...

Stone Mothers by Erin Kelly
Big Sky by Kate Atkinson
Never Mind by Edward St Aubyn

Two things that make you rant ...

Politics
People who talk only about themselves and their children

One thing you'd tell your teenage self ...

Persevere and you will conquer.