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Louise Thomas
Editor
Fearne Cotton has shared her thoughts on celebrity authors who use ghostwriters.
The 43-year-old TV presenter spoke at the Henley Literary Festival on Sunday (6 October) – at which The Independent is the exclusive news partner for a second year – to promote her debut novel Unscripted.
The story follows a people-pleasing young woman who learns to find her voice after she finds a series of scripts predicting her saying things she doesn’t mean.
Cotton is no stranger to writing, having published 13 nonfiction books to date, many of which have gone on to become bestsellers. Her self-help title, Happy, launched a franchise, with a podcast, live events and merchandise.
Asked about the increase in celebrity authors who recruit ghostwriters, the author told an audience at Henley-on-Thames, that “they’re missing out”.
“I mean, I don’t personally have a view,” said Cotton, explaining that for her the process is as good as the result.
“For me, the best bit about writing either nonfiction or fiction is the fact that I bloody loved doing it, whether it works or not, or sells well, or people love it, or they’re not quite sure about it is an add-on.
“And yes, it would be lovely if people react well to your work. But the fact that I got to sit there and do that whenever I wanted, I do not take that for granted. That is the gift to me.”
She added, “So I would say they’re missing out.”
The TV personality added that she is already working on her second novel, the idea for which came to her in a dream.
“I had this really weird dream and he [her husband and musician Jesse Wood] went ‘Well, surely that’s your next book’, and I was like, that will actually be useful, of course.”
Cotton, who was joined by Sara Cox promoting her second novel Wayback, said that there was an “assumption” that the pair would not be writing their own work.
“I think the only difficult thing, I guess, for people like me and Sara, is there might be an assumption like, ‘Oh, if you wrote that’, and then you have to prove yourself a bit, which is maybe slightly annoying.”
However, she shared a one-word response to those who questioned her credentials: “Whatever”.
She continued, “I loved the project, I loved working on it. All of the books that I’ve written, I’ve absolutely loved writing. Otherwise I wouldn’t have bothered because it is long.”
Scripted and Wayback are out now.
