We kick off the new season with the wonderful Helen Heckety! We talk about her new book Alter Ego, my new baby, name changes, therapy, ableism, hobbies, Coolio, foxes, and the joy of friendship love among other things.

I can't think of a better guest to kick off with, I hope you enjoy this as much as I did

Helen's excellent book ALTER EGO is out now, and you can follow her on instagram here. I am putting togetehr a tour for next year and you can find out more about everything I'm doing on IG or my website.

x

Hello Friends, this episode has been a long time coming in a few ways. One, Toby Campion has been on my hit list for many many years so it was a delight to finally get him over to Margate. The last time we were on stage together was at the Royal Albert Hall (!) and this was just as magic. It has also been delayed in coming out because I've had an actual human baby so my podcast baby got put on hold. This has however inspired me to get professional help (for the podcast baby, not the human baby just yet) so we welcome Buddy Peace to the team who has mixed and edited and made it sound beautiful and also meant it's not delayed by any more months. The good news is Toby is brilliant and it is well worth the wait, and the other good news is we have already started recording season 4 so that will be following this up oh so shortly. Look after yourselves x

Hello friends!

Our penultimate episode of series three brings to Margate the ultimate legend that is Laurie Bolger! It's impossible to listen to Laurie and not have a smile on your face so get your cheeks ready and dive on in. I celebrate having a brand new book out and Laurie clebrates having two brand new books out. I also share some big news that I can't remember if I've shared on the podcast before or not. We talk pubs, pyjamas, writing clubs, sisters, sunshine, flowers, online dating, sexy knees and more. I think you'll agree it is absolutely worth the wait.

You can find more of Laurie's stuff including her new books here
You can find my new book here

Stay Brilliant x

A lovely time with a local legend!

Brigitte was on my wishlist for Something Borrowed for a while when out of nowhere I got a voice note from her asking if she could come on because she reckoned she'd be good at it - It was meant to be! Also she was 100% correct, as not only our best-dressed guest of all time, but a wonderful mix of storytelling, song, punk, vulnerability, warmth and (ethical) fireworks. Featuring singalongs, univocalisms, travel tips and of course poems, it was an absolute treat from start to finish and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did x

You can find more of Brigitte's work here
You can come see me on tour here
You can order my new book here

We're back baby - February's edition saw the wonderful Georgie Jones come to Margate! It was our first time meeting in person but you wouldn't know because it was a vibey vibey time from start to finish. We talk slams, online vs in person performances, trying to write a poem a day for a whole month and much much more. Poems cover topics such as Gym changing rooms, The entire universe, friendship breakups, refugees, the ocean and of course Margate, as well as maybe my favourite borrowed thing yet. It was a genuine joy to share a space and the least editing i've ever done on a video because it was all just so great. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

You can find more of Georgie's work here
You can find my tour dates here

Happy New Year!

I am single handedly extending the January blues by taking 6 weeks to edit this but i think we can all agree it is worth the wait. Raymond Antrobus is a poetry legend. It has been over a decade since we first shared a stage together and it has been a joy to see his work flourish since then, and an even bigger joy to find out that he had recently moved to Margate so we could snap him up for a very special edition of Something Borrowed Live. With a range of poems covering mental health, Palestine, grief and Horses, alongside prime numbers, sticky toffee pudding, love and new years resolutions (no points for guessing who brought what energy) it felt like we could have spoken forever, and I am so pleased that we did manage to record the conversation we had. I hope you will agree.

You can find more of Ray's work here and you can find dates for my upcoming tour here!

A mildly festive version of the podcast, in that I shoehorned Christmas into a few of my poems and Will made us delicious boozy hot chocolates while we recorded. I was having so much fun with this chat that it is the longest episode we ever recorded, before being ruthlessly trimmed down to just under an hour of pure gold. I share my epic Christmas poem containing 24 years of memories in one, we have a grown up story time with Mark reading from his new kids book, we talk about school visits, rap battles and more, and mark finishes with an old fave that definitely isn't appropriate for his new child-based audience. Mark then stayed over and we played board games until about 1am. All in all a massive joy!

Surprise! We interrupt your monthly recordings for a bonus episode with the one and only Donna Ashworth - My reading of Donna's poem went viral on instagram which means I now have a new cult following of mostly American Yoga instructors, and quite frankly I am here for it. One of the many lovely things that have come out of this is me and Donna were messaging each other and despite Scotland to Margate being slightly too far for a live appearance (for now!) she kindly agreed to join me for a bonus Something Borrowed over Instagram, so we went back to the podcast lockdown roots! It was really really lovely to connect in that way but also very surreal to go back to that place mentally, so I can confirm it will be normal service as resumed next month. In the meantime why not treat yourself to a copy of Donna's fantastic book here!