Sussex writer releases her lockdown columns in new book

Sussex student Jenny Bathurst has been writing for us about pandemic life since lockdown began back in March last year.
Jenny BathurstJenny Bathurst
Jenny Bathurst

Now here comes the book!

As Jenny explains:

"This week for the first time I held a book in my hands with my name on the front cover. Not a school textbook or a novel I scribbled my name on, but a book published by me that is available to buy. Perhaps this sounds arrogant, a proud brag proclaiming something I’VE done that YOU haven’t, (or perhaps you have) but this isn’t my intention at all. In fact, quite the opposite. Without those who have skimmed one of my articles over their morning coffee or the readers who return every week, I would never have continued writing the column that shaped my book into what it is now. And for everything it is, I am incredibly grateful.

"For those of you who may be unaware, I have spent the past few months compiling each of my articles from April 2020 to April 2021 into one book, with the goal to raise money for a charity close to my heart and to have a lasting memory of my experiences as a student during the coronavirus pandemic. With the title ‘Lockdown Observed: Becoming an Adult Without Leaving the House’, the book attempts to strike a chord with anyone who experienced the turbulence that was the last fifteen months, which, let’s face it, is all of us.

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"50% of all profits will be donated to charity Freedom4GirlsUK which tackles period poverty by providing menstrual products and education here and abroad, and 100% of ticket sales from my book event on June 30th will also be donated to the charity. I also ask that anyone who plans to attend the event to please purchase a copy of the book before the night as there will be limited copies available on the evening. A link to purchase tickets for the event will be at the bottom of this page.

"What I’m going to say next will sound incredibly cringey so don’t say I didn’t warn you, but when holding my book in my hands for the first time I was astounded by how something I had dreamed of for so many years as a child was suddenly a reality, and not because I ever believed it was entirely unmanageable. I still have a passion for reading and storytelling, but when deciding that journalism was the path I wanted to go down I let the idea of ever publishing a book die, believing that the only time I would put my name to a piece of work would be in a newspaper or a magazine. This opportunity cemented to me that just because you choose to pursue one route doesn’t mean that you can’t follow another, and even if Lockdown Observed is my first and last book I feel incredibly blessed to have had this chance at all. I will never stop saying ‘thank you’ for the opportunity and the support that has come my way.