Writing Background
Lindsay Hawdon is a writer of fiction, travel and adventure.
On leaving school, she spent three years travelling around Europe, Africa and India, hitching rides and sleeping under canvas. She has since travelled to over one hundred countries and writes regularly for The Sunday Times, The Sunday Telegraph, The Australian and Conde Nast Traveller, among other publications.
Her travel column “An Englishwoman Abroad,” began in the Sunday Telegraph in 2000 and ran for seven years. Throughout that time she travelled to every continent, ventured across every terrain, experienced every climate, writing stories about her experiences and the people she encountered along the way.
Her bi-monthly stories for The Sunday Times, “Have Kids Will Travel” followed an eighteen month trip travelling solo with her two young boys around South East Asia. Their most recent trip, inspired by her novel, Jakob’s Colours, featured in a monthly column for the Independent called “The Rainbow Hunters, and took them around the world to seven different countries in search of the origin of seven different colours, raising money for the charity War Child as they travelled.
In 2015 her first novel Jakob’s Colours was published by Hodder and Stoughton (UK) and Quercus (US) and translated in six countries. It was shortlisted for The Authors Club First Novel Award and was an Elle Magazine novel of the year. Her short stories have won awards, including the Ian St James Award and World Wide Writers, been long listed for The BBC Short Story Competition and been published in The Dalhousie Review and High Life Magazine.
She is an Associate Lecturer at Bath Spa University’s Creative Writing MA, and also lectures on the Travel and Nature Writing MA.
She has fifteen years of editing experience behind her and is a literary consultancy for Curtis Brown, Jericho Writers, The Writing Coach and Cornerstones. She works across all genres.
mentoring: My Approach
I feel passionate about championing aspiring writers. It is continuously rewarding to help an author, experienced or inexperienced, find their feet and watch them grow in confidence and skill as their work progresses. Writing can seem like such a daunting venture and part of my job as a mentor is to take the weight off your shoulders and to cheer you on from the sidelines.
I’ve worked across all genres and have experience with writers of all ages and backgrounds, from undergraduates to university professors and published authors. Mentoring is a flexible process. I’m very happy to be led by the writer, to use the allocated time in a way that suits you best. We can discuss, agree priorities and set objectives. I’m of the mindset that there are no real rules, but throughout the process I will be honest and constructive, and most importantly, supportive.
