Family, grief and finding love late with Christina Patterson

Christina Patterson is a journalist and author, whose new book Outside The Sky Is Blue, is an absolutely beautiful reflection on family, illness, grief and love. I worked with Christina many years ago. In fact, she sat next to me when I was a very green reporter working on the gossip column of the Independent newspaper. She, in contrast, was an extremely erudite and glamorous columnist, writing about big issues like politics and literature - and she was absolutely lovely to me. What I hadn’t realised was that she’d had to deal with an enormous amount of grief and hardship in her life. Outside The Sky Is Blue recounts the story of her family - whom she calls, at one point, “the mad, sad Pattersons”, including her sister’s schizophrenia, the premature deaths of her mother, father and brother, and her own struggles with lupus and cancer. This might sound depressing, but in fact Outside The Sky Is Blue is very far from a misery memoir. What Christina has done so well is inject humour, nostalgia, and even glamour into her story, whether that’s in recounting her strange time as a member of an evangelical youth group and her exciting, action-packed rise through the world of publishing and the arts and into journalism; or relaying anecdotes about her love life. I absolutely adored the book, and I loved speaking to Christina about it. What a special interview to end on. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Buy the book here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/outside-the-sky-is-blue/christina-patterson/9781472282620 Twitter: @aliceazania / @queenchristina_ Instagram: @aliceazania / @queenchristinawriter Edited by Chelsey Moore