Interview With Author Hannah Chamberlain
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’ve always told stories, in mental health. I’ve written articles, chapters in books, made films and written scripts. Just this year I published my first solo book, Good Mental Health is an Art, and I’m getting a really great reception for it. It’s fantastic to hold a book you have written in your hand and I can’t get over signing it for people.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Good Mental Health is an Art was prompted by the realisation that there are so many definitions of bad mental health but not so many of what is good mental health. It feels like getting to good mental health is just a massive to do list – exercise, sleep, food, good habits, you know. I wanted to create a sentence that inspired people and was easy to remember.
Here it is: Good mental health is an art, built on the habit of catching and appreciating very ordinary little moments.
The book takes that sentence and breaks it down phrase by phrase. If good mental health is an art, that makes you an artist. That’s a nicer label than other labels you might have been given. Time to be nice to yourself and kind to your inner artist.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I wrote my book in my caravan, which was a lovely place to be. I love writing in bed. I love writing on trains and buses. I love sticking my headphones on and getting on with it. It takes me to a very special place. I don’t like being at a desk, I like finding a nook.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I love The Outrun by Amy Liptrott and Wintering by Katherine May. I love writing where I feel the personality of the author, and I love people who can weave their lives into meaning.
What are you working on now?
I’m turning 50 in December. I’m working on a book – The 9 Year – about giving yourself permission to make the most of your decade.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I love instagram. And engaging in conversation. Awesome Gang is great too!
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Keep at it, find your voice, keep believing.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Give up. It spurred me on. Horrible to hear, and I hated it. It made me realise how much I need to write though.
What are you reading now?
H is for Hawk. Late to the party there.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Opening up new possibilities I hope.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
I’d really like an excuse to sit and read the Complete Works of Chaucer. And there would have to be some Philip Larkin in there – Shakespeare of course – and Virginia Woolf’s diaries. If I’m stuck on an island I want some meaty reads.
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