Lottie Moggach

Countdown with ...

Lottie Moggach

Lottie Moggach grew up in Camden Town, north London, with a writer mother and pets including a tortoise called Torty, a cat called Kitty and a rat called Ratty. Her mother told her that writing novels was the most fun you can have, and so Lottie decided she too would go down that path. By the time she realised this was not at all true, it was too late to change course.
 
She also resolved that when she grew up, she would give her pets more imaginative names.

After spending one term reading English at the University of Sussex, Lottie started her journalism career at The Times, for whom she has worked regularly ever since. She has also written for publications ranging from Elle to the FT and was the launch arts and entertainment editor at the now-defunct London Paper.

She now lives in another part of north London with her partner and her seven-year-old son, writes novels, and very occasionally has fun. She also has her own baby tortoise, who grows at a rate of a centimetre a year and should far outlive them all. The tortoise’s name is Lego Asteroid Fire.

Interviewed 31 July 2020

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

Word based, outrageously fortunate, largely haphazard, procrastination heavy, occasionally productive.

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

My seven-year-old son reading the Beano, our (rarely-played) piano, some antihistimine tablets, an empty coffee cup, the builders working on the house opposite, a papier-mache model of a sarcophagus (not to scale), a Valentine’s card from my partner, books, a tiny leather framed photo of my great granny found in the breast pocket of her husband when he was killed in WW1.

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

Cheese on toast with Marmite.

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

At the moment, in lockdown, I’m just longing to sit in a pub garden with my friends. The names won’t mean a lot to others, but I’d much prefer them over anyone well-known.

Six things you can't live without ...

Loved ones aside: my electric bike, books, very strong coffee, capers, walking in Queen’s Wood – and a puppy, although I don’t have one yet.

Five favourite words ...

Yes, panglossian, indeed, dusk, glaikit

Four places you'd run away to ...

Lisbon; Bologna; Sointula Island in Canada, which is where a character in my first book escapes to; Presteigne in Wales, where my mum lives.

Three books you've bought recently ...

Circles & Squares by Caroline Maclean, The Consequences of Love by Gavanndra Hodge, The Hours Before Dawn by Celia Fremlin.

Two things that make you rant ...

Both car-related: Range Rovers in London and drivers who leave their engines running unnecessarily.

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

Stop dressing from the army surplus shop.