Interview: Kate Spencer

When Kate Spencer moved to Turkey in 1993, she set about fulfilling her dream of writing for a living. Writing features for a local tourist newspaper and sending back short stories to UK women’s magazines, Kate also wrote the manuscripts for two novels. After three years, she left Turkey and moved to join family in New Zealand.

Now, 22 years later, Kate has returned to her native Bristol to promote her novel Being Daisy and her comedy play Blokes What I Have Known, which gets a run at the Alma Tavern Theatre later this November.

Born and brought up in Staple Hill, Kate’s career paths have included teaching, journalism, travel writing, theatre reviewing in New Zealand, the UK and the USA, radio presenting, directing, producing, mentoring, script editing and writing comedy. She has lived and worked in Turkey, France, Greece, Los Angeles and New Zealand.

Kate in New Zealand promoting her autobiographical novel ‘Being Daisy’

In 2012 Kate wrote Being Daisy, about growing up in Bristol in the 1960s as a young girl and young married woman, and featuring love, the Stones, sex, abuse, marriage, kids and divorce. The following year she brought her comedy Ward 7 to the UK, with runs at the Redgrave Theatre, Bristol and the Blakehay, Weston super Mare, before returning to her home in the South Pacific.

“I left Being Daisy on a shelf for 17 years before publishing it,” admits Kate. “Following a rather enlightening trip to India, I decided it was now or never. I opened the manuscript, chopped 60,000 words from the text and set about the arduous task of self-publishing”.

Based on her own coming-of-age in 1960s Bristol, Kate’s novel follows what life was like for teenage girls – and guys – as they pushed their way through post-war conventions and discovered new ideas, fashion and music – not to mention the media-led pressure to look like Twiggy.

“Barriers were being brought down but life was still pretty tough, especially for many parents who witnessed child-bride marriages and kids leaving home to venture far and wide and even abroad,” Kate recalls.

“At school I was constantly being told by my teachers that I wasted far too much time. They were right. At the age of 15, friends and I would travel across town to the ITV studios every week to be part of a dancing audience on the West Country’s equivalent of Top of the Pops, called Discs-A-Gogo.  Tony Blackburn was the host and we met all the groups, chatted with them and picked up countless autographs. At one stage I could lay claim to Tom Jones’ cigarette stub and Keith Moon’s drumstick!”

Actresses Helen Stirling and Deborah Meredith perform in Kate’s play ‘Blokes What I Have Known’ at the Alma Tavern this November

Married at 17 and a mother of three by 21, Kate discovered that married life wasn’t the bunch of roses she had expected. Wanting to build a career, Kate did her teacher training in Bristol, majoring in French. “Looking after three young children, juggling playschool, junior school and college while trying to study and hold down a part-time secretarial job to help bring in some money… life was hectic and often extremely difficult. I divorced when I was 28, and it’s just before that point that my novel ends,” Kate explains.

“I suppose Being Daisy is mainly aimed at women, but many men have said how they have enjoyed reading it and have also been able to associate with some of the dramas I went through. Although I have self-published in New Zealand, I would love for a West Country publisher to pick it up and run with it.”

Several years ago Kate was invited by P&O Cruises to be a guest speaker on a couple of their cruises in the South Pacific. “My lectures were about self-publishing and confidence-building and were followed with extracts from my book. Life certainly wasn’t all doom and gloom in the 60s for young brides… I think I made the best of things.”

Kate worked as a guest speaker on P&O Cruises in the South Pacific, discussing self-publishing and confidence

Now, having successfully toured her stage comedy Blokes What I Have Known to various New Zealand venues, Kate has decided to bring the play back to her native Bristol.

“I’m bringing myself and my play home,” says Kate. “People may think that I’ve written this play about myself – but it’s not. Having lived and worked in Greece, taught in school and also experienced a few love disasters myself over the years, it’s a mixture of stories and people I’ve come across,” Kate explains.  “I love writing comedy. My father had a natural ability with comedy and my son Jason, who works in animation, has it too.”

Actresses Helen Stirling and Deborah Meredith will perform in the two-hander, which runs for four nights at the Alma. “I know that audiences relate to this play because it’s generic,” Kate explains. “Blokes are blokes the world over.  Women sit in the audience and say… “ooooh…. I knew him!”

Blokes What I Have Known is at the Alma Tavern Theatre from Wednesday, November 28 to Saturday, December 1. For more information, visit getawriggleon.com/guides/bristol/alma-tavern-theatre/events

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