The Book of Rubbish Ideas

Jenni Murray from BBC Radio 4, Woman's Hour

Dearest all, I’m in London and currently looking out of a window onto the world and the clock is ticking along, getting ever closer to 1am – eek!

I had a call late yesterday from Radio 4 (as you do) asking if I could just whip up to Town and go do Woman’s Hour?  Well, as you know, I’m not a girl to shy away from a bit of media, so I grabbed the opportunity to chinwag with the iconic Jenni Murray in a heartbeat!

The only trouble was/is, I have to be in the studio at 8am and the current laws of physics won’t allow for me to get up there from my neck of the woods with time to spare and as the Tardis is in for a service and MOT, I thought it best if I come up the night before.

Unfortunately, as it was a bit 11th hour, I had no time to connect with a chum and seek out a bed, so I’m sort of roughing it on a couple of scatter cushions in a sleeping bag and champing at the bit for the morning to come and hereto lies my last minute post

I’m not talking ‘Rubbish’ for a change.  Tomorrow I’m wearing my other hat and raising the profile of being a child of an alcoholic and talking about the great work of NACOA.  I’m on with Lauren Booth and regular readers will know she and I delivered a great speech on the subject in London a couple of weeks ago – there wasn’t a dry eye in the house….

Tomorrow, I’m hoping we’ll be able to whoop up the same chemistry as we talk about the volatility of growing up in a house with a dependent parent.  It’s no easy topic to pull out of the hat, especially at that time of the morning, but as ever, I’m determined to raise the profile of that amazing charity and the crucial work she does.

If you’re around between 10am and 11am, please tune in to Radio 4. You can also listen live via you computer through the Radio 4 website and if you know anyone you feel might benefit from knowing NACOA exists, please drop them an email and send them the link – there’s also the listen again facility if you can’t tune in today.

Ahhh…. well, I’m signing off, my sleeping bag is winking at me!

Back to my usual ’quality’ rubbish posts tomorrow!

TSx

PS: and don’t you worry, I’ll be pitching my rubbishy little read to Jenni and hoping for a proper slot on Auntie sometime soon – watch this space…

ADDENDUM: I’m home again and what a wonderful experience it was meeting Jenni and her team and talking about the plight of children of alcoholics to an audience of 3 million listeners!

Thomas has kindly added the link to the interview on my ‘Author Appearances’ page and it’ll live on the Woman’s Hour archive forever, which is fantastic news.  You can listen to that specific feature, you don’t have to wade through the entire show (good though it was) to find it.

Here it is – BBC Radio 4 ‘Woman’s Hour’ Interview with Tracey Smith and Lauren Booth on being a child of an alcohol dependent parent.

If you know any children of alcoholic dependent parents, please consider sending them this link and alert them to the helpline and facilities offered by The National Association for Children of Alcoholics.

The run up to Chrismas can be one of the most difficult and volatile times of the year; everything you can do to help is gratefully welcomed and don’t forget, for every ‘Book of Rubbish Ideas’ you buy, I make a donation directly to NACOA – thank you for your support.

With love and thanks,

TS x

(This is from the ‘Woman’s Hour’ website…)

Do the children of alcoholic parents get enough support?

The National Association of Children of Alcoholics held its annual lecture recently. It was given by Lauren Booth. A recent study by the Association indicated that 920,000 children and young people now live in a home where one or both parents have a problem with alcohol. But according to the Home Office these figures could be even higher. They indicate that as many as 1.3m children live with alcoholic parents and a further 250,000 have parents who misuse drugs. Few of these are likely to be known to outside agencies. Jenni is joined by Lauren Booth and Tracey Smith, from the National Association for Children of Alcoholics, to discuss whether  enough attention is given to the children of alcoholic parents.