So excited to finally mention this documentary! It evolved from my friendship with Maroesja and our feeling that the truth hadn't been addressed in Wild Wild Country - the abuse of the kids within the communes. It's a fantastic and necessary film and I urge you all to watch it.
Pleased to announce the release of my new feature doc 'Children of the Cult', which will be screened in cinemas in the UK and broadcast on ITV Exposure on 13 October 2024. For more information please see:
In the 1970s my mum won a writing competition and the prize was a job at Vogue. One day, Barry Lategan took her from the Hanover Square office to take photographs of her in Battersea Park. This then appeared in the summer issue of Vogue. My beautiful mum.
#SinsOfMyFather
#memoir
From now on I may be otherwise know as Doc Dunn - just passed by PhD with a few very minor corrections, involving a semi colon or two.
Can’t quite believe it, the girl who only got 4 GCSEs, no maths, too. Thank you to
@JuliaBell
for believing in me. And my lovely family
Still trying to work out what I think about this... but the thread of comments on her vitals are so disgusting and so revealing of what a fucked up society we’re in right now that maybe she is revealing the truth by bravely standing naked.
'I invite Jacob Rees-Mogg to a naked debate about Brexit!' 🗣️
Cambridge lecturer Dr Victoria Bateman, who campaigns against Brexit while naked, challenges the Brexiteer MP
#r4today
When your academic PhD supervisor, after a final real, asks you to delete a few rogue full stops and make all the quote marks curly from straight, but signs off his email with 'this is good to go' - after five years, a divorce, a relocation, many midnight panics, I am weeping.
My daughter has been ill for almost a month with post Covid fatigue and we are not yet out of the woods, but the old spice of her teenage self is returning, and she went out today for the first time, no longer dizzy, no longer weary. I want to cry with relief.
Officially now Doc Lily Dunn after a moving ceremony at Birkbeck. The first in my family to have a PHD, and after only passing 4 GCSES. Thank you Mum for carrying me, my children and Robin for loving me, and
@JuliaBell
for seeing my potential. What a day.
We all know that most writers don’t earn much, but in the midst of the pandemic I got a book deal, and having not travelled abroad with my kids since me and their dad divorced I booked a special holiday. We arrived yesterday after complex forms, checks, tests, and … just look
This is super exciting. You don't know how long I've waited to share this news with you all. And I managed to land one of the best nonfiction editors around. My heart...
@jennyjennylord
.
@wnbooks
has acquired Sins of My Father: A Daughter, a Cult, a Wild Unravelling, a "dazzling" literary memoir from
@Lilydunnwriter
about her attempt to unravel the mysteries of her late father's life:
After a year of being agent-less (long story), I am thrilled to now be represented by Cathryn Summerhayes,
@Taffyagent
who is very excited about my memoir, Starman... which will hopefully see the light of day some time reasonably soon (by publishing during a pandemic standards).
You know that feeling when commissions come in, and as a writer you feel WANTED?
@Mslexia
have asked me to write a series on memoir and I’m bloody thrilled ❤️❤️✍🏼
#HappyWritingDay
everyone.
Today I finished my manuscript, a final draft of my memoir, which I've been writing for four years, and has morphed and changed with the mammoth shifts in my life. My dad and the legacy of his self destructive, compulsive addictive flight here on what looks like one tiny page.
So excited to share this! As a teacher and writer of
#memoir
I have been turning again and again to US publications for advice on how to write it, because there are so few craft books in the UK, so I thought I'd write my own! Here it is!
#WritingCommunity
Have just heard that I’ve been awarded a
@Soc_of_Authors
award to write my next book! Thank you THANK YOU. These guys also gave me a grant when we hit the pandemic. What a fantastic support for writers. Next book - Here I come!!
#SoAGrants
Happy Publication Day for ‘Sins of my father’ and the brilliant
@Lilydunnwriter
- really looking forward to a weekend hurkle-durkle reading this memoir.
It's not every day that you get offered a permanent academic contract without even applying for a job. I've been working at
@BSUCreativeW
as an associate lecturer for about five years and then they offered me some security. This is good news.
@KatyaTaylor
@nataliesedacca
@DrEllaC
I took this near Canonbury Square some years ago. The next time I went back someone had cut the bush and painted over the thighs. 😒
Is anyone else feeling a bit stressed with managing children, creative projects and paid work? Just reaching out for a virtual communal hum hug ❤️😘😊☺️🤗🤗🤗
When I was 15 I dated a 32 year old for nearly 2 years. He was my first boyfriend. The difference in age meant there was an extreme imbalance of power, and it took years for me to process the damage done to me psychologically having this entry into relationships.
#RusselBrand
🔺 EXCLUSIVE: Russell Brand has been accused of rape and sexual assaults by women who have broken their silence on alleged attacks between 2006 and 2013
This is a joint investigation by The Sunday Times, The Times and
@C4Dispatches
✍️
@RosamundUrwin
@char_wace
@pmorganbentley
The most amazing review in The Spectator today by a writer who has read and understood my book. It is very strange reading a review of a book about your life, but I am so grateful for this. My hands are shaking... my heart
#SinsOfMyFather
Woke to this fabulous review this morning. It is beautiful and moving, and I am thrilled. Book of the Day
#SinsOfMyFather
Sins of My Father by Lily Dunn review – surviving a cult
Our precious babies arrived! I am over the moon with the production, the quality, the layout, the whole thing. It is utterly beautiful
@unbounders
and
@johnmitchinson
Thank you for helping us bring this wild and precious gorgeousness into the world.
I am so bloody excited that my proofs have arrived, and don't they look beautiful?! Thank you so much W&N for such a stunning job. If you haven't yet pre-ordered my book, you can do it by clicking on this link:
#SinsOfMyFather
#Memoir
On a dog walk and my phone kept pinging, and what?!?! Among best memoirs of 2022 judged by The Guardian with authors I love,
@ali_l_millar
and
@mattrowlandhill
- amazing what happens when you’re not looking!
Oh wow. I spoke to the sixth form students at my old school, Camden School For Girls, about Sins of My Father and how my life is my writing, my writing my life, and if you truant it doesn’t mean you’re a loser! It was so heartwarming and I loved every minute of it
#memoir
So sad to hear of Martin Amis’s death. When I was just a young thing I appeared in the film adaptation of The Rachel Papers dancing at Cafe du Paris in Soho. It was one of the most exciting days of my life and I was paid £50. Here’s a screenshot. I’m the blonde one (not the man)
OMG I just sent my PhD to my supervisor - all 120,000 words of creative and critical... five years in the making... Please wish me luck everyone! I am proud but also a little bit scared.
Hello friends! Today is my birthday, which feels like the perfect day to share the cover of my paperback. Here I am, proud as punch to be on the arm of my beautiful, troubled father. Thank you
@wnbooks
,
@jennyjennylord
and
@Taffyagent
for helping bring this baby into the world.
For those who don't know, Zoe Gilbert and I set up a little teaching outfit
@londonlitlab
5 years ago. We work closely together and we are also very good friends. A lovely coincidence is that on 17th March both our second books are going to be published.
@mindandlanguage
I'm pondering on something... A fellow writer suggested that you can't write
#memoir
and be a good person - that you must be ruthless to do it & expect to hurt people. But what if the skill is finding ways of writing about people with compassion? I'd love to know your thoughts.
A big shout out to Bristol Hospital Education Service for getting my daughter through her GCSEs after suffering Long Covid these past 18 months. She finished today, and hand on heart she would not have got through them without BHES help. She has been given back her future.
I saw two young women sitting at an outdoor table, rolling cigarettes and drinking wine and a thought passed my mind: I wish we could be suspended in youth, drinking crisp wine and smoking cigarettes with a girlfriend infinitely, never getting drunk, sick, growing old.
We are live! Please support this important anthology of recovery stories, by sharing our crowdfunding page and pledging for a copy of our book! You can help make it happen.
#addiction
#recovery
#Unheardvoices
Very excited to see my first piece for my
#memoir
series in Mslexia this issue. It’s first of a few on Memoir and Self Healing
#writingcommunity
@Mslexia
Very excited to discover my memoir made it into in The Times Best Paperbacks for March 2023 - and it looks like it's the only memoir in the nonfiction section... I wasnt expecting any more press with the paperback, but Yipeee!
#memoir
#WritingCommunity
One of those days when I have not stopped and done one thing for myself - full of appointments for my daughter (who is unwell), puppy and household stuff, and just as I sit down, my son declares he is feeling sick... then I remember: My paperback is published tomorrow.
#memoir
This really is a joy to behold. This is the week of my paperback launch. It’ll be in the shops on Thursday. So good to feel this little book of mine has another lease of life
#SinsOfMyFather
Have had the most emotional day. A finished memoir, a few tears with
@JuliaBell
and now this beautiful cover for my other ‘heart’ project. So proud of this book and everyone who has worked hard to nurture it to life
Such an intense time publishing
#SinsOfMyFather
and I’ve been thinking about how hard won it was. How much rejection I had before getting here. I even lost an agent. If you’re struggling and it feels like you’re knocking on doors forever shut, keep at it. It only takes one.
When I was a child I was abused by one of my dad's friends under the Rajneesh belief that virgins should be 'deflowered' by men as they would benefit from their maturity. For years I didn't realise this abuse was systemic and I absorbed it, thinking I had asked for it because
This is a tedious fact that most of you won't be remotely interested in, but I have now written 22,519 words of my PhD thesis, and this is momentous from a girl who truanted away most of her education and got only four GCSEs... Yay to determination and self education...
Am listening to the audio book of A Ghost in the The Throat, by Doireann Ní Ghríofa and Oh My Goodness, this is memoir and biography and beauty like no other.
#BookRecommendations
I’m going through my old photos as added a few to my proposal for my memoir about my father and came across this. Me in my beautiful mother’s arms. Such pure adoration and
#love
into the mainstream, and today finally The Sunday Times has printed some of these women's stories. This is the tip of the iceberg. We hope now that others will find the courage to speak out. Thank you
@rosiekinchen
#meToo
#SexualAbuse
#CultGirl
#CultKids
We received some exciting news this week. Our beautiful precious baby, A Wild and Precious Life will be distributed and sold in the U.S.A!! We are very excited to discover what they will make of it!
#WritingCommunity
#amwriting
#recovery
#addiction
I am actually going to this secret hideaway for a week alone to write and I can’t even allow myself to realise that this is actually a reality about to happen in the next week. I am holding my breath...
Crazy past year with the publication of Sins Of My Father, which was granted the Guardian and Spectator's best nonfiction books of 2022. And then I became a Dr. Thank you to all my readers and solid supporters here on Twitter. Have a creative and happy 2023. 😍🥰🎉🍾🎊🥳
This is a Vivian Westwood coat and it is one of the most stunning garments I own. It was ravished by moths and I spent more than £100 getting the moth holes darned, but I am so darned pleased I did it. Very sad to see such an icon go. She made clothes for women’s curves. RIP VW
First weeks of my paperback's life have been so good and exciting - excellent presence in Waterstones, reviews in the Times and Daily Mail, an event at Five Leaves, podcast interviews, and a reminder of how well it was received in hardback. My memoir's life continues...
#memoir
Dear dad, I still think of you and dream of you, but each year the memory of you is a little fainter, and your presence weaker. You no longer hurt me. Perhaps that is because you are no longer hurting yourself. I love you; I hate you. I miss you; I am free of you. 💔❤️🩹
So excited to share the 5th in my series of interviews of memoirists,
@marinab52
on the importance of contradiction and loose ends. That we should not be looking for a forced resolution in
#memoir
. So much to learn from here
#writingcommunity
I am back in my paradise. A week away from it all just me, my notebook, the view, the sea wind… and my beautiful teen daughter who has had post viral fatigue since Jan and needs her mum and the healing sea. This place soothes my soul and brings me back to myself.
I am supposed to be doing a second pass on a really important essay but I can’t for the life of me concentrate on anything because I HAVE JUST SEEN MY BOOK COVER AND IT’S AMAZING 🤩 😍😘🍾🥳🍻👏🏼🥂🥂🥂🥂📚📖📒📗📘📙📕🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
I wrote a piece for
@lithub
about the aftermath of publishing my
#memoir
, and the dilemma of exposing the sins of our fathers, when we are taught to revere patriarchy. I reference memoirs I love, by
@SafiyaSinclair
and
@NoreenMasud
. You can read it here:
Had a good week: an author party in London, my editor clinging hold of this cheeky proof, a day at a spa, a late morning with jam bagel and coffee, but really… still need to pinch myself because these books are hard won. But, this is it.
‘A tremendously good memoir; a page-turning story of family complexity, and strikingly talented writing’
Delighted SINS OF MY FATHER by
@Lilydunnwriter
is an Editor’s Choice for March in this week’s
@thebookseller
@CaroSanderson
has the best taste 🙏
Here's a thing: A literary
#agent
wants to drop you, but instead they ignore your emails, phone calls, forget important dates or even your book launch in hope you drop them first. This is not about my brilliant agent, btw. BUT THIS IS REALLY BAD PRACTICE. Anyone experienced this?
My paperback has arrived! So strange to see my pesky face on the front, but I am so grateful for my amazing reviews. Thank you
@Taffyagent
and
@jennyjennylord
for making this happen, and
@Leanne_Oliver1
for such good publicity. I am honoured to have been on this journey with you.
This is a heartfelt plea - we're so close to being able to go back to the Arts Council to apply for a second round of funds to help us meet our target. Only 7% to go. Please please help us on this journey by pledging for a copy of this important book.
Woke up thinking about this photo today. My beautiful mother; my troubled manipulative father; small and hopeful me trying to find my own story from between them.
#memoir
#amwriting
#amredrafting
Today I wrote a rough first chapter of my new book, which is a second memoir-of-sorts. I've been thinking about it for months and making notes, but there is nothing like committing that first chapter to the page for the whole thing to suddenly open up like a flower. It's working.
Taking time off post launch of
#SinsOfMyFather
. Exhausted, but also overwhelmed by the generosity of you Twitter folk, and my readers. Publishing memoir is like opening your arms and asking for a hug. So grateful for the hugs I'm getting in response - imagine if you all ran away!
Here it is! The most gorgeous book cover, ever, thank you
@wnbooks
. It is both painful and thrilling to see it step out into the world. If you want to have it delivered on the day of publication, you can pre order it here:
#WritingCommunity
#memoir
When your PhD critical supervisor has read the 30,000 words that came tumbling out over six weeks having laid dormant and frightened for five years - says - 'Good Work!' - to the girl who got four GCSEs .... GODDAMMIT!!
It’s pouring with rain, but I’m on my way to my PHD ceremony at Senate House, and last night I watched a Terrence Malick film, so all is good in the world.
This is a beautiful place I escape to, to write uninterrupted. The past 2 years my visit was disrupted by Covid, and I’m due to go next week. But this year I am taking my 15 year old daughter with me, still recovering from post viral fatigue (7 months). She will swim and sleep.
Have been so lucky with the amazing reviews I've had but particularly by this one, , where Nicholson wrote, among one of the best accounts of
#addiction
she'd read - that my experience could help others. Isn't this why we write?
#memoir
#AddictionRecovery
Very excited to announce that we will be recording a conversation for
@BBCRadio4
Listening Project between me and one of our original members of the St Mungo's creative writing group, about what writing and meeting each other has meant to both of us. Might get emotional...
2 months since this baby was published. I had amazing review coverage - was so lucky - but the best bit has been hearing from readers about how it has helped them, and realising that my intention was met. Publishing family memoir is complex, but this has been good!
#SinOfMyFather
Reminded today of this lovely woman,
@mindandlanguage
who helped me turn my life around just over four years ago. Together we created
@londonlitlab
and our courses now sell out. We're also, right this moment, in the process of taking on two new writer/teachers. Love you, Zoe
Excited to finally get my copy of
@Mslexia
despite the postal strike, and read my second piece of my series on
#memoir
and healing
#writingcommunity
Today is the publication day of my paperback! And I have written a blog post to celebrate. It's about the difficultly of writing about others, and asks are memoirists bad people?... haha. I'd love to know what you think
#memoir
#writingcommunity
I have some exciting publication news, some exciting publication news, some exciting publication news. I have some exciting publication news (she dances around her small garden).
Today we three got together to talk memoir and journeys for
@womentalkplace
and it was truly inspiring. Love in Berlin, love for rock and thwarted spiritual quest. Fascinating! Such a pleasure to meet you
@amy_may
and
@annamfleming
Great to see my latest piece in
@Mslexia
about writing memoir and its power to heal. I have really enjoyed writing this column … watch this space for a new one coming soon.
#memoir
#amwriting
Kicking off my series of interviews with memoirists, is
@NoreenMasud
. She tells us she could write A Flat Place only by imagining she was a tiny fish with no name; & you can never predict what others might find painful in your
#memoir
#WritingCommunity
On a wild coastal walk on New Year's Day and I hear I made it into The Times roundup for books to look out for in 2022. What a good way to start the year... So proud of this little book of mine, making its way out there in the world
#SinsOfMyFather