I love women. I love our softness and our strength. I love our sisterhood, our wisdom, our sense of community, our bodies, our capacity to learn, our dreams, our resilience, our vulnerability and our power.
I hope you can feel the affection I have for the women I write about in my stories. Even the difficult ones: Malek, Soraya, Jaya, Alisha, Lavinia, Gaia, Ellie, Kiya and Sitara. Bloody-minded, kind, cunning, doubting, courageous women, like the ones I meet in everyday life.
And for what it's worth, I love men, too.
But today it International Women's Day, and I'm thinking about the women in pockets of the world that aren't safe. And I'm thinking about the women around me. The ones struggling, the ones thriving, and the ones doing their best.
My mum, who is a lifeline for people in need, and who in her late sixties is training to be a therapist. My daughter who is learning how to put down boundaries when someone oversteps them. My gran, still cooking for her loved ones and tending to her garden. My friend who has dementia and who is trying so hard to hold onto the threads of who she is. The mums I am meeting for cocktails tonight, each tending to their own joys and troubles on life's complex path. How we'll find comfort and fun with each other tonight.
Women are brave and brilliant and so damn beautiful at every stage of their lives. So here's to each and every one of you.