Clare Pooley is a British novelist, speaker, and blogger.

Origins and education

Pooley was educated at

Roedean School Roedean () is a private boarding school governed by royal charter on the outskirts of Brighton, United Kingdom. It was founded in 1885 by three sisters to educate wealthy daughters and heiresses of aristocracy and industrial elites of the 19t ...

and

Newnham College, Cambridge Newnham College is a women's constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sidgwick and suffragist campaigner Millicen ...

, from which she graduated with a degree in Economics.

Career

Pooley first pursued a career in advertising at J. Walter Thompson, in due course becoming a Managing Partner and Group Head, before leaving the work-place on the birth of her third child. In 2015, Pooley began a blog, ''Mummy was a Secret Drinker'', about her life following a resolution to give up

alcohol Alcohol may refer to: Common uses * Alcohol (chemistry), a class of compounds * Ethanol, one of several alcohols, commonly known as alcohol in everyday life ** Alcohol (drug), intoxicant found in alcoholic beverages ** Alcoholic beverage, an alco ...

. She blogged under a

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

until the announcement of her first book deal in September 2017. Pooley's first book, ''The Sober Diaries'', was a narrative of her first year of

sobriety Sobriety is the condition of not having any effects from alcohol (drug), alcohol and other psychoactive drug, drugs. Sobriety is also considered to be the natural state of a human being at Childbirth, birth. A person in a state of sobriety is ...

and also included an account of her successful battle to overcome

breast cancer Breast cancer is a cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a Breast lump, lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, Milk-rejection sign, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipp ...

. In October 2018, it was announced that Pooley's fictional debut, ''The Authenticity Project'', had been the subject of a six-way auction, with Transworld securing UK and Commonwealth rights,

Penguin Random House Penguin Random House Limited is a British-American multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, with the merger of Penguin Books and Random House. Penguin Books was or ...

acquiring the US rights, and foreign rights sold in 29 other languages. ''The Authenticity Project'', published in 2020, was a

New York Times Bestseller ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list is widely considered the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States. John Bear, ''The #1 New York Times Best Seller: intriguing facts about the 484 books that have been #1 New York Times ...

, and the winner of the RNA debut novel award. It was also awarded best novel in translation in the French Babelio awards, the Prix Babelio. Pooley's second novel, titled ''The People on Platform 5'' in the UK, and ''Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting'' in the USA, was published in 2022, and her third – ''How to Age Disgracefully'' – in spring 2024.

List of published works

* ''The Sober Diaries : how one woman stopped drinking and started living''. Coronet Books: 2018 * ''The Authenticity Project''. Bantam Press: 2020 * ''The People on Platform 5''. Bantam Press: 2022 (USA title: ''Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting'') * ''How to age disgracefully''. Bantam Press: 2024

External link

''Mummy was a Secret Drinker''
Clare Pooley's blog on

Blogspot Blogger is an American online content management system founded in 1999 that enables its users to write blogs with time-stamped entries. Pyra Labs developed it before being acquired by Google in 2003. Google hosts the blogs, which can be acc ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pooley, Clare British bloggers 21st-century British novelists British temperance activists People educated at Roedean School, East Sussex Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge Living people Year of birth missing (living people)