One Thing Led to Another (31 page)

‘I didn’t even fancy him: lanky, pale as anything, this
really
dodgy hair. We were ‘just good friends’ but you know what they say about ‘just good friends?’ Took us nine years to do the inevitable,
once
without a condom to get me up the duff and five months of shambling about before we actually got together. He says I loved him all along, but I’m not admitting to anything. As far as I’m concerned, he got me pregnant, then we fell in love. A bit topsy turvy, but we got there in the end.’

Tess, 29, London

From
Bundle of Joy: 10
2
Real Stories of Motherhood

Well, One Thing Led to Another, and I only went and wrote a novel! It would definitely never have happened without so many wonderful and talented people. Special thanks go to my agent Lizzy Kremer for her unerring belief in this book, her boundless ideas (all the brilliant ones are hers! I must come clean…) and for generally being a total delight. To my editor, Claire Bond – the most modest genius I know. How you manage to make it look so easy and remain so calm, I’ll never know. I am very lucky to have you.

I want to thank everyone at HarperCollins and David Higham Associates. I’ve been blown away by the support and enthusiasm everybody has shown for this book.

To Marie O’Riordan and Charlotte Moore – the column would never have happened without you, and therefore definitely not the book – I am forever indebted. To all the team past and present at Marie Claire and at www.marieclaire.co.uk, for your encouragement and enthusiasm.

To my mum and dad; sisters, family and all my wonderful friends. See! I wasn’t lying, I really was writing a book, even if it took me seventy-five years. Thank you for your support and love, So much of this book was inspired by times we’ve shared.

Big thanks to Louis: My friend, father-to-my-child, first reader, and so much more. You bigged your part up as ‘first editor’ and so you should! For giving me the time to write; the confidence to do it and the good sense to tell me when the writing was ‘dull, dull, dull!’ I don’t deserve you.

Last but not least, my biggest thanks go to Fergus, the best surprise of my life.

This book is for you.

Katy Regan joined
Marie Claire
as features writer in 2002. ‘Highlights’ in that position included spending ten days in the buff on a nudist resort and becoming a footballer’s wife for a week – all in the name of investigative journalism.

In 2004, at the height of her career as the office roving reporter singleton, she fell accidentally pregnant by her best mate (who just remained a friend). Seeing the creative possibilities in this unconventional situation, her editor commissioned her to write a column –
And then there were three
…
sort of
which proved so successful it ran for two years. She has now taken her loyal following to her blog:
The State She’s In
on the
Marie Claire
website www.marieclaire.co.uk.
One Thing Led to Another
is Katy’s first novel, a laugh-out-loud and very poignant debut based on her column. She lives in south London and shares care of her son Fergus with his dad who lives across the road.

Find out more about Katy and her novel by logging onto www.marieclaire.co.uk/KatyRegan

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