FACE THE MUSIC - Bel Mooney
MICK RINGHAM asks a well known personality to select their Top Ten favourite pieces of music. This month, he talks to the writer and novelist Bel Mooney.
Bel Mooney is a born optimist, she enjoys that ‘can-do’ mentality, which enables her to pursue a rich and varied career in the media that many aspire to, yet seldom achieve. She moves effortlessly from journalism and broadcasting to novelist and for the past three years, agony aunt for the Daily Mail. Born in Liverpool, she moved south with her parents at the age of fourteen, to settle in the West Country, later she obtained a first from University College London. It was while working on a student magazine that she met Jonathan Dimbleby, however after a thirty-five year marriage and two children, the couple separated in 2004. She has written many novels and made various programmes for television and radio, including the hugely successful Devout Sceptics for Radio 4 and for achievements been awarded Honorary Degrees from both Liverpool and Bath Universities. Bel has now remarried to Robin, a freelance photographer and they are currently in the process of refurbishing a rambling farmhouse, close to the city.
Her latest book ‘Small Dogs Can Save Your Life’ has been described by Joanna Lumley as heart-breaking but also heart-making. It tells the story of a period in Bel’s life when she acquired a little rescue dog ‘Bonnie’ from the RSPCA. It coincided with her marriage break-up and as she says “it is a book about the love of dogs as well as people and an uplifting account of how you can survive the breakdown of a marriage without bitterness”. The book is out this month and published by Harper Collins, and coincides with the completion of her ‘Bonnie’series of children’s books all starring her little white maltese dog.
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