Jenni Fagan: I'm 46, nobody thought I'd make it past 16

The Shift with Sam Baker

Sam Baker Ltd

Society & Culture, Health & Fitness, Personal Journals

4.8 • 525 Ratings

🗓️ 25 March 2025

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

My guest today is the award winning author, screenwriter and poet Jenni Fagan. Jenni has written four novels, several poetry collections and been named Scottish novelist of the year. 18 months ago Jenni and I met in a suitably spooky basement in Edinburgh’s old town to discuss her incredible, harrowing memoir about growing up in care, Ootlin. An ootlin, according to Jenni, is ‘someone who creates their story without first seeking permission to do so’. And you’ll soon see why that couldn’t be more apt. Then, life happened - publication of the book was delayed and the interview never ran. Scroll forward to a couple of weeks ago when Ootlin was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction, and then won the Gordon Burn Prize. I decided to raid the archives and listen again. What I heard was a moving conversation about building a life when society dumped you on the scrapheap before birth. And then some. As you’ll hear Jenni and I spoke candidly about her childhood growing up in 29 different homes, how she somehow preserved the shining girl inside when life was only interested in snuffing her out, becoming Jenni with an i, the importance of cultural mothers, surfing her way through her 50s and her obsession with property renovation. CONTENT WARNING: there is some tough stuff in here including reference to sexual abuse and suicidal ideation. * You can buy all the books mentioned in this podcast at The Shift bookshop on Bookshop.org, including Ootlin by Jenni Fagan and the book that inspired this podcast, The Shift: how I lost and found myself after 40 - and you can too, by me. * If you enjoyed this episode and you fancy buying me a coffee, pop over to my page on buymeacoffee.com. • And if you'd like to support the work that goes into making this podcast and get a weekly newsletter plus loads more content including exclusive transcripts of the podcast, why not join The Shift community, come and have a look around at www.theshiftwithsambaker.substack.com • The Shift (on life after 40) with Sam Baker is created and hosted by Sam Baker and edited by Juliette Nicholls at Pineapple Production. If you enjoyed this podcast, please rate/review/follow as it really does help other people find us. And let me know what you think on twitter @sambaker or instagram @theothersambaker Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Hannah from the Standard Issue podcast. Join us every Wednesday for rated or dated.
0:05.3	Well, we watch a famous or sometimes infamous film to see whether or not it has stood the test of time.
0:11.7	This week, we watched The Birds, Pretty Woman, Flash Dance, Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, Casablanca, Rosary's Baby.
0:20.5	It's the 18s in a film, isn't it? None of thieves. Casablanca. Rosemary's baby. It's the 18s in a film, isn't it?
0:23.1	None of this makes any sense.
0:26.8	It's like putting on the comfiest pair of pajamas.
0:30.7	She's like, oh, what could that be?
0:32.7	Oh, what do you think it is?
0:33.8	It's loads of birds.
0:35.1	And they naturally live happily ever after.
0:38.0	Do they?
0:39.3	It's quite a feminist parable.
0:41.0	Terribly, terribly dated, but I did have a nice time watching it.
0:43.8	Absolutely 100% dated.
0:46.1	A triumvirate of rated.
0:47.9	A lot of results.
0:49.1	You can listen to standard issues rated or dated wherever it is you listen to your podcast.
0:54.1	And make sure you follow us to find out what we do on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
0:59.7	Spoiler alert, it's a lot.
1:07.6	Hello and welcome to The Shift, the podcast that aims to tell the no-holds bar truth about being a woman post-40, created and hosted by me, writer and broadcaster, Sam Baker.
1:18.7	My guest today is the award-winning author, screenwriter and poet Jenny Vagan.
1:24.7	Jenny has written four novels, several poetry collections and been named Scottish
	...

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