*Andrea Thompson and Caitlin Moran at Rosewood London*

The BSME hosted a special lunch with award-winning author, journalist and columnist, Caitlin Moran, in the beautiful Mirror Room at the Rosewood Hotel, London. Members and guests enjoyed an insightful conversation between Moran and BSME chair and Marie Claire Editor in Chief, Andrea Thompson, covering Moran’s working class background, unorthodox route into journalism, her well-honed writing process, and championing young writers – all underscored by her characteristic humour. She proudly showed-off her novelty socks and mentioned she was off to a festival after the talk.

Growing up home-educated in a working class family of “hippies” in Wolverhampton, Moran followed an unconventional path to becoming a journalist. Aged 15, she won The Observer “Young Reporter of the Year” for her take on a news story. While other candidates submitted serious reports, Moran wrote about one of her seven siblings getting his hair washed. Ultimately, this led to the writer’s enduring relationship with The Times, after she faxed a piece to them and secured a columnist role: “It took me about 20 years to realise that’s not generally how people get jobs.”

Describing her writing process, she explained that she always has “various notes open” for ideas, getting “all the thinking done” first. She recommends reading your writing aloud and honing the skill of “switching from writer to reader”. The greatest compliment she’s received for her writing? When her friend from “a very cool rock band” said her style is “chatty”. “He thought that was a diss. 90% of my energy goes into making it conversational. Those pieces are supposed to be stand up routines. That’s how you make people want to read it.”

In her latest book, she speaks about managing anxiety. She used to think she “[owed] everything to anxiety” and if she reduced it, she wouldn’t be able to write; but in fact, it’s quite the opposite: “I actually work more than I did when I was anxious”. She keeps stress levels down through coming off social media and only consuming news through the weekend papers.

Moran is known for tackling big, often personal, topics. But she explained that she is very tactical about how much she opens up: “It might seem like I share everything about my life but I don’t. It’s quite trippy. I’ll tell you one small thing and then talk about the issue in general.” In this way, she protects against the “huge pressure on women” to write “confessional stuff”, which she sees particularly affecting young writers.

Supporting underrepresented young writers is something Moran is passionate about and taking on with the BSME as part of their “Young Writers’ Prize”, launching in 2026. “You can’t be what you can’t see”, Moran described, so working class writers may not realise the media roles available to them. It was important that the prize comes with a cash award: “I don't want young, brilliant, working class talent writing their Substacks on their lunch for free”. She’ll also be the winner’s mentor, offering wisdom from her illustrious career.

Considering our current media landscape, Moran voiced that she’s not worried about an AI takeover. When she read an AI-generated take on her column, it told a tale of her wearing high heels on the bus and “slagging off Donald Trump”.

Moran has regularly spoken about her dislike for this particular type of footwear: “It thinks I’m wearing high heels! Maybe it isn’t the mega mind that’s going to take over the world we think it is.”

Takeaways from the discussion written by Lucy Keitley, MA Magazine Journalism graduate from City, University of London.