MY FIRST TIME
Dear friends,
Public speaking? Me? Never!
That’s what I thought all my life. I’m shy, highly sensitive, and I am definitely not addicted to adrenaline. In fact, it’s my least favourite hormone. That rush? Ugh. All it does is turn my thoughts into a giant bowl of spaghetti. Sometimes I even get a migraine.
So I don’t know whether it’s because I’m a….mature…woman (in a very immature way) or because my drugs are giving me the huzzahs, or whether there’s something in Spanish water, or whether I happned to be wearing my lucky undies, but in the last six months I’ve publicspoken (I just invented a new verb!) twice.
In August 2025, I did a poetry reading from my book Illicit Croissants At Dawn and only broke a sweat once, and that was because it was 33 degrees centigrade (91,4 Fahrenheit) and my lectern was in the sun. But I had such a lovely time, standing there in my white dress, reading my poems. I’d have read my entire book if they’d let me. But there was coffee, and croissants, and pains au chocolat. So I read my funniest ones, and then swanned about, high on Imodium (I have IBD), feeling fabulously authorish, chatting to all the people eating the croissants and convincing them to buy my book.
I loved it.
This week, my confidence inched up another notch when I did a podcast interview with Daniel Puzzo. We chatterboxed away for longer than the Zoom allowance, and Daniel even had to invite me back on for an encore so that we could wrap it up politely! I sat there thinking, wait, what’s going on? Who is this blabbermouth?
My health has given me a rough time these past few years, so I haven’t had the opportunity to go out swanning, giving readings and being fabulous, because I’ve spent most of my time in the toilet. However, I’m on a new med which is working, so as soon as I’ve vanquished the one very pesky and painful side-effect, I shall be unstoppable. Who knows, I might even go on Jimmy Kimmel, and Oprah, and on La Grande Librairie on French television. Maybe I’ll even give a Ted Talk.
Wherever I go, I’ll be giving myself a standing ovation.
With love and gratitude,
Francesca xx
Chapter 5 of JUST LIKE A MOVIE is available on The Empress’ Substack and will be published by Empress Editions
Temporary cover for Just Like A Movie!