Hello Marianne
A friend once told her mother she had a boyfriend called Martin to stop the annual Christmas interrogation. By February, she’d given him a job. By April, a family. By June, she’d ‘broken up’ with him because he ‘had a weird thing about stamps’ – in truth, the admin had become too much.
Most of us have told a small lie that quietly grew teeth. I’d love to pitch a 1,500-word feature for You on the white lies we tell to protect ourselves… and why we so often ‘lie up’, inventing better jobs, better relationships and fuller lives, rather than the other way round.
First-person reflection blended with three anonymised case studies (real women and one gay bf, names changed): the invented boyfriend, the fake promotion, the wedding plus-one who ‘couldn’t get the time off’ on the day. Warm, wry, lightly confessional. Not a takedown.
I’m the author of the novel Lisa Doyle is Absolutely Fine (Spring Street Books, June 2026), which opens with the heroine announcing a fake engagement on Instagram after too much wine and spending six months trying to keep the story straight – so this is very much my territory.
Happy to work to your schedule (and to send a proof of the novel if useful). Author photo available.
Best,
Mo Fanning | 07881 925 376
mofanning.co.uk