Spinning Plates with Sophie Ellis-Bextor

Anna Williamson is a presenter, podcaster, author, psychotherapist, relationship counsellor and life coach. 

She told me how she suffered with poor mental health in her 20s and after the birth of her first child. These experiences really shaped her and helped form one of the best marriages in her professional life: being a psychotherapist on Celebs Go Dating ( which happens to be one of my favourite shows). 

Anna has an eight-year-old son Enzo and a four-year-old daughter Eleonora. We talked about her very traumatic birth and postnatal period with her son and how she prepared to protect her mental health after she had her daughter, including banning family visits in the two weeks after her second birth. Even if it did upset her Aunty Sheila! 

Spinning Plates is presented by Sophie Ellis-Bextor, produced by Claire Jones and post-production by Richard Jones.

Lliana Bird is a writer, broadcaster and co-founder of the charity Choose Love. She describes herself as a butterfly flitting from flower to flower. She was also the longest employed female DJ - for 16 years - at Xfm and then Radio X as it is now called.

Lliana and her partner Noel Fielding have two girls, Dali and Iggy, aged 2 and 4, and Lliana told me how their house might be described as over-stimulating by some, with constant music, curated mostly by Noel but increasingly by the children, and with art being created on giant canvases in the kitchen, with paint splats everywhere.

Lliana's first children’s book ‘Baboo the unusual Bee’ has just come out in paperback. She revealed that she actually wrote it while breastfeeding and she’s now working on the stage show version of it.

As my mum would say: "She's no slouch"!

Spinning Plates is presented by Sophie Ellis-Bextor, produced by Claire Jones and post-production by Richard Jones.

Sara Pascoe is a stand up comedian who I particularly love. She now has two little boys after a long period of trying for a baby, including IVF. 

She spoke honestly to me about how she can remember being in a liminal head space for a long time while trying for a baby, and acknowledges she was 'horribly spiky' about parenthood before she had her boys, realising now that it was self-protection and a coping mechanism.  

She shared that she recently had a phone call from Robbie Williams who she idolised as a teenager, and how that made her feel like god, manifesting her teenage desires in her 40s!

She also told me that if she was Prime Minister she would limit everyone to 2 hours screen time per day and that she reckoned we'd all secretly like her for it!

Spinning Plates is presented by Sophie Ellis-Bextor, produced by Claire Jones and post-production by Richard Jones.

Hollie McNish is a poet who tours the country performing her poems. She says the whole of the UK is full of amazing theatres and bookshops.

I love Hollie's writing, the way she looks at motherhood, and how she always stand up for her small person, which I feel is empowering for them both. I was delighted when she offered to read one of my favourite poems of hers during our chat.

Hollie told me how she books her own gigs, which impresses me a lot. She said that she loves travelling around Britain performing her poetry, and how her 12 year old daughter often comes along to her gigs. Most of the time this has worked well, but of course we had to compare notes on a couple of the times when taking our children to live gigs has gone spectacularly wrong...! 

Spinning Plates is presented by Sophie Ellis-Bextor, produced by Claire Jones and post-production by Richard Jones.

Steph Douglas is a mum of three who founded the gift company Don't Buy Her Flowers ten years ago. I’m a repeat customer of the website when I want to send a friend some TLC if they don’t live round the corner. 

Steph explained how the idea for her company came about when she received 8 well-meant bouquets following the birth of her first child - and felt she now had something else she had to look after, as well as her newborn!

Steph told me how she and her husband also had something unusually tough to contend with during her first pregnancy, as her husband Doug was diagnosed with thyroid cancer when she was just 14 weeks pregnant.

I loved hearing about Steph's own childhood, growing up in a busy household of 6 children. She told me how one of her favourite periods was when most of the now grown up children had returned home after first relationships had failed, and they were all back, living and eating at home, having loads of banter, and would all go out to a club together after their parents had gone to sleep. Something she said I can maybe look forward to after my 5 have initially left home!

Spinning Plates is presented by Sophie Ellis-Bextor, produced by Claire Jones and post-production by Richard Jones.