Less than six weeks after starting to write about downshifting from London to rural Northumberland, a mother of three young children has landed a £70,000 publishing deal.
Early last month Judith O’Reilly launched Wife in the North, an online chronicle of her battles with three children, two elderly parents and an absentee husband while living in a northern hamlet, with the nearest town half an hour’s drive away.
Last week, after whirlwind approaches from an agent and a publisher, she signed a deal to turn the blog, which has become a surprise hit in Britain and America, into a book to be published by Viking Penguin.
Her publisher believes the theme of a former career woman following a dream to bring up a young family in rural surroundings will tap into the zeitgeist of the postBridget Jones generation.
O’Reilly’s wry, poignant descriptions of her life have met sudden success because of stylish writing and the power of having the right connections in cyberspace. Like the pop singer Lily Allen, who came to prominence through her site on MySpace, O’Reilly found an audience on the internet before breaking into the traditional media.
“It’s amazing, it’s all happened so fast,” said O’Reilly, who had not had any
paid work for months after moving north from London. In mid-January her blog was mentioned on the website of Tom Watson, the MP and regular blogger, whom she had asked for advice. The next day Iain Dale, the political commentator and another prolific blogger, linked Wife in the North on his site.
That in turn led Andrew Sullivan, the American writer and Sunday Times columnist, to note its quality. US readers soon logged on in droves. Within days Patrick Walsh, a British literary agent and publisher, had seen the potential and began working on a deal.
“I’ve done other blogs,” said Walsh, “but what’s so refreshing is that it isn’t about sex or celebrity; it’s wry, humorous and honest.”
O’Reilly, 42, left her previous job as education correspondent of The Sunday Times and moved to Northumberland because her husband Alastair loved the area and wanted to bring up their family away from east London.
In the event, his work commitments have kept him toiling in the capital and he can be away for weeks at a time. Meanwhile, she has found herself struggling to cope with three children in unfamiliar surroundings without her friends and networks.
She began blogging in earnest in January as she and Alastair prepared to renovate the two old cottages they had bought.
An entry on her site, www. wifeinthenorth.com, for January 9 reads: “Here I am in wind-swept, muddy Northland whenI have Beatrix Potter townmouse written all over me. I know the marriage vows say something about ‘in sickness and in health’ — I am sure, however, they didn’t mention ‘up in the north and down in the south’ becauseI wouldn’t have signed up for that.”
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