Telegraphing the good news re ED

[mockney piers]

Perfectly reasonable Ted 'please tell me your middle name starts with a K' Max.

I would say that there's a blanket love of Dulwichmum the EDF person, a curious and wildly varying mix of DM's persona and her author's, rather than her writing per se, of which most people probably have their own take, much as you do.

I'm a pretty big fan of the author too, as she is lovely, but I'm sworn to secrecy on that count, on pain of being taken to the Kings Rd and forced to shop for hours on end...AAAAAGGH, death by Prada!!!

[Ant]

Pft. You protest, Mockers, but we all know you'd love it.

[Jah Lush]

Oooh! Has the Dulwich Mum backlash started already?

[annaj]

HonaloochieB Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> COngratulations and good luck DM.

>

> I agree with TM and my earlier post referred to

> one of the comments in response to the article.

Ooohh, that makes more sense. I thought you had suddenly decided to rename SeanMac Merlin!

I think Mockney is right, people on here are pleased for DM, because she's well known and liked (both virtually and in reality by some although I've not had the pleasure)on the EDF and has been posting for a long time. I suspect there is also an element of a sense of shared glory, because she was posting here first, and satisfaction at feeling like we're in on the joke that some people won't get.

I'm undecided. DM often makes me smile, but not always and I didn't think this was her strongest work. There is a huge difference between a blog and a newspaper column and only time will tell if DM is up to the challenge.

For now I'll just join everyone else in saying congratulaions DM and good luck, I hope this is a sucess for you.

[*Bob*]

I can't believe the Telegraph has stooped so low!

I long for the good old days when you could expect quality serialisations of important publications written by the likes of Diana, Fayed, Trevor Thing-Jones, Fayed, Diana.. Diana.. er..

[Jah Lush]

Surely you're confusing it with the Daily Diana( Express) aren't you *Bob*.

[Ted Max]

Perfectly reasonable Ted 'please tell me your middle name starts with a K' Max.

Alas, there is a K hole in the middle of my name. And I lack the extra X factor as well.

[mockney piers]

:)

[SteveT]

Well done DM I expect bolly to be flowing like water at the Magdala tonight.

It is a well known fact that journo's are to the most part drunks, so we forumista's expect to be bathing in bubbly as you have joined the esteemed ranks of the professional scribe.

[wee quinnie]

DM's going to tear a strip off her au pair when she sees her comment.

[SimonM]

Dammit the bastards at the Telegraph excised my sentence where I revealed she was a "he" and a retired brickie from Penge...So much for our wonderful free press!

>>Surely you're confusing it with the Daily Diana( Express) aren't you *Bob*.<<

Quite right. Express = Diana: Telegraoh = Liz Hurley (or have they now moved on to Carla Bruni??)

[Keef]

I think an old poster from this forum put a litle comment on there.

[Asset]

I'm mildly surprised it's elicited such a response. Any comment is a good comment though (to paraphrase).

[Moos]

Well, I thought it was funny, and I think the fact that it sparked such wonderfully angry comments shows that it works.

But to each his own...

[dulwichmum]

Ted Max Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Well, here goes DM. I expressed a mild opinion

> that although your blog/persona are amusing enough

> as single-joke pastiches, I don't find them all

> that funny. I don't quite understand the

> blanket-love for the writing visible on this site

> - and queried if this was my own lack of a sense

> of humour, or lack of familiarity with the targets

> of your satire.

>

> I then realised that that might appear a little

> ungallant - given you are celebrating a national

> news-site deal (for which, many congratulations),

> and also that in general conversation expressing

> opinions on humour can never go further than

> personal preference, so I deleted.

>

> But I probably shouldn't have deleted because I

> think I expressed myself better the first time

> round, and I may just be compounding things here.

>

>

> That's about the gist of it, I think.

Lovely Ted,

I accept your point of view completely. To be fair, I have been on this forum since soon after it began and I consider many of the forumites to be very close friends. They found my blog before I even realised that anyone could discover it and they got my sense of humour. I have been reliably informed that there are over 110 million blogs, so I felt that it was a fair assumption that I was typing away on my computer alone in my house and that no-one would ever read it.

How wrong I was. I have been offered a book deal, the column and all manner of writing projects, and I am not a writer. I have never claimed to be.

I have lived around here for 20 years, and I get so fed up when I hear people argue that there is no civilisation to be found south of the river. I see it as my personal crusade to turn Dulwich into the next Notting Hill - but that is a project for another day...

Thank you all for your kind support. I really do not have any problem at all with the negative comments. I am flattered that some people find it so realistic that they believe the characters to be real! The article on the Telegraph web site took me forty minutes to write on the bus coming home from work.

I was vegetating in front of the TV after work each evening when I read an article about blogging. I have two very young children and no energy for a social life. I have found a supportive network of great friends locally and internationally online. I have also found people who are prepared to bully and abuse me, and people who stand up for me and support me. My friends support me because they see how much pleasure writing gives me.

I don't mind that people consider my writing style to be crude - I can console myself with the income from my weekly column in a national paper web site, my press trips abroad (twice this year so far), spa reviews, free designer clothes (I recently received a pair of pants that cost ?500 - but sadly they were not my size!) and cosmetics which I receive in exchange for a mention on my blog.

Life is sweet! Seriously.

Blows kisses and waves to Mark, Keef, Mockney, Sean (prrr), Ant, Michael (swoon), Mr Batdog (sigh) and Polly.

Like me or loathe me, I don't mind at all, I am a happy girl, with a substantial second income from the hobby I adore!

[HonaloochieB]

The very best of British to you. Truly.

[Michael Palaeologus]

XX

[dulwichmum]

Now I am in trouble! This is the article they published today, and it reads really well, just mentioning my blog until the second from last paragraph;

"Taking a delicious satirical swipe at pushy mothers in SE21, the anonymous blogger (www.dulwichmum.blogspot.com)" Now I am in big trouble, because you see that is not what I said - these pushy mums are not exclusively SE21, they are everywhere, and I suppose to a small degree in every mum. My blog is a send up, and the focus of my blog is Dulwich because I love Dulwich, and I am fed up explaining to people where it is. "Yes near Brixton and close to Crystal Palace and Peckham and Streatham - yes lots of gun crime, but Dulwich is leafy and quiet..."

This might seem like a trivial detail to those at the paper, but I have had my car number plate and my children's names posted on my blog by people who feel it is directed at them. People will read that line and feel personally insulted, and I don't blame them. I have so many lovely friends who are mothers in Dulwich, and in many ways I feel that this insults them.

Let me just point out that I am sending up pushy mothers everywhere - internationally. They are not exclusively from Dulwich.

Anyone for gin on their cornflakes?

[KalamityKel]

What on earth was ya doing up so early AND on here DM? :-|

[dulwichmum]

Lovely Kalam, I have young children. I never get to go to bed!

[Bleep]

Funnily enough this was the last article I read before being made redundant from the Telegraph on Friday. Well done Dulwich Mum. As usual, so many people get the wrong (Telegraph readers that is) end of the stick when reading these sorts of articles - because they think they're "real" as such. That's why you never get articles like this in the tabloids.