Katherine Blakeman's Blog

I arrive at Honeybee Lane in Miltree, Cornwall, and already I don’t want to leave. Victoria Berry’s house is towards the end, and it would be nondescript on the outside if it wasn’t for the beautifully manicured garden. Kelly-green grass is cut into neat strips, a patch of soil in the middle boasting a bush dripping with yellow roses, and a strip at the front is packed with pink and white geraniums. It fits, given that her partner Anastasia is a florist. I knock on the door, and Anastasia hers...

This is my first foray into putting recipes on my blog. And here is my solemn vow that I won't prattle on pointlessly like most food bloggers. You know how it is: they tell you their life story, how they came to discover and love the recipe, explain every step in precise detail, AND THEN give you the recipe after five minutes of scrolling. I'm not going to do that. You don't need a 'jump to recipe' button. I'm just going to give you the recipe.

Oh damn. I've prattled on.

Well, no longer.

He...

In its now two years of existence, the biggest criticism I’ve had of The Summer We’ve Had is the double plot twist at the end. People have called it ‘phony’, a ‘cop-out’, and said that it pissed them off. It’s lost the book a few stars on various Goodreads reviews. And, as all authors do, I’ve had to accept it. There’s not a whole lot I can do to change it now, after all.

But I can explain it. And, two years on from its release, that’s what I’ve decided to do. So for those of you who’ve read ...

I’ve been meaning to write this article for some time. Months, in fact. But I wanted to hold off for a while. I thought, ‘something’s got to change soon’.

‘Something’s got to shift.’

But I was wrong. It hasn’t. And so here it is: the veritable scream of anger and frustration that I’ve been holding in for so long.

Let me give you a little context, first of all.

I am a twenty-one year old woman who achieved exemplary A-Levels. As in… two A* grades and one A. I chose not to go to university f...

It’s no secret that mental health is one of the topics closest to my heart.

It has been since I was twelve years old, setting up a mental-health themed Instagram account with the general vibe of ‘you are not alone’. Several people around me at the time were going through mental health struggles, and although I knew it wouldn’t necessarily help them specifically, I hoped it would help other people in the same boat.

The Instagram account didn’t last, but my interest in mental health did. Fast...

Over the last few months, you might have seen a couple of lists floating around. Lists that I have put together, of Sapphic books that, for whatever reason, have not received enough attention. I posted fifty at the start of June, and another fifty ten days later. July and August have been taken up with the promotion and release of my own new book (A Different Kind Of Pride), but here we are in September. Sapphic September, as I’ve heard it called, and for that reason, I’m doing another round...

As a general rule of thumb, I’m a one-book-a-year author. The Silent Chapter in 2022. The Summer We’ve Had in 2023. Love You However in March 2024. And – hang on. A Different Kind Of Pride in August 2024?

What on Earth could have possessed me to break this trend?

Let me explain.

Firstly, context.

A Different Kind Of Pride is about finding romance out of a spinal surgery. The medical side is, in fact, very much based on my own spinal fusion, back in 2017. Unlike Victoria, the main characte...

The other day, I was out driving with my mother, and I noticed a little girl walking along the pavement wearing a Cinderella dress.

“I used to have one like that,” I said.

“But you were never really into it,” my mum replied. “You were never into Disney. Or dolls, or teddies, or most toys really.”

“So what was I into then?” I replied.

“Books,” she said. And that says it all really!

It’s safe to say that literature has been the building blocks of my life. Some of my earliest memories are w...

Since the first edition went down so well, I thought I’d make a part two.

If you’re new here – hi, I’m Katherine Blakeman, and it upsets me to see the same few Sapphic books being recommended time and time again to the detriment of other, less-well-known books and authors. A couple of weeks ago, I compiled a list of fifty, all of which had under fifty reviews or ratings on Goodreads. It took the Sapphic world by storm – or at least that’s what it felt like for me, since I am a less-well-known...