Stella Duffy's Blog

For much of the past year I’ve been rewriting my academic thesis on the embodied experience of postmenopause as a trade non-fiction book Being the Change for Virago, who publish my fiction. I’m almost at the end of the first draft and I’ve been working on the section where I address the menopause transition and […]

Long-term relationships and the value of saying thank you.

things I wish I'd known about menopause 25 years ago

Today I am 62. And delighted to be so. I’d had two cancer diagnoses by the time I was 50 and in the past two years, since my 60th birthday, I’ve had a hip replacement, a knee replacement, a ruptured brain aneurysm and two brain surgeries. I am a) bloody thrilled to be alive, however […]

It’s the end of what is, according to lots of social media statuses (stati?) #worldcancerday – the thing is, having had it twice, every day is cancer day. Both cancers utterly changed my everyday life, for good as well as ill. Most days it’s just somewhere in the background, in my childlessness or my chronic pain or […]

reflecting own 25 years since my first cancer diagnosis

Ok, I know it’s a few days yet until 2025 begins, but I thought I’d get in early with the gratitude because I have such a lot to be grateful for this year. Time off: I’m grateful for the fanciest holiday I’ve ever had – Curaçao in January 2024, and a lovely day in Paris […]

Like many of you, I’ve been hearing a lot of “this is not who we are” in the past few days. But the hard part is that this IS who we are. This is the Britain in which we now live, where migrants and Muslims (and especially those who are both) have been demonised for […]

My gorgeous publishers Virago have made this lovely page for me and my books – just in time for my 30th anniversary as an author – Calendar Girl was published in summer 1994! Here’s a lovely Savidge Reads review of Calendar Girl. Virago have a deal on a delicious bundle of books here which, together, […]

Yes, the recent (ish) rise in menopausal voices is great. About time. Much needed.But where are the postmenopausal voices? Why are we not asking those who have been through menopause how it was for them, what they did to support themselves through the transition, and how it is now? Why are we not hearing from […]