author bio
Joanne O’Connell is author of Beauty and the Bin and Stitched Up.
She is also a journalist whose inspiration sprang from a year-long column she wrote for the Guardian called ‘Goodbye Supermarkets’, during which she met food waste campaigners, such as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and eco-chef Tom Hunt, and presented a short video about taking her children foraging on a Scottish Island. She has written for The Guardian, The Observer, The Times, and various glossy magazines, and is the author of The Homemade Vegan. She occasionally appears on television and radio.
Joanne’s books
Stitched Up
Stitched Up is the heartwarming and fashion-forward novel from author and journalist Joanne O’Connell, perfect for readers of Elle McNicoll and younger fans of Geek Girl.
Cassie has a passion for fashion so when the opportunity to redesign her school uniform comes up Cassie is thrilled. The only problem? She’s stuck between eco-conscious Fern and label-loving Azra.
As the competition heats up, Cassie joins The KnitWits – a local knitting group that immediately makes Cassie feel at home, especially once she sees that it’s secretly attended by the coolest girl at school.
As Cassie’s skills grow, she has to learn to balance Azra’s obsession with trends with her own love of sustainable fashion.
But will the pressure cause the ultimate bestie break-up?
Beauty and the Bin
Laurie loves her family and she wants to join them in making the world a better place.
But right now, she doesn’t want to fish food out of bins, she wants to wear a pair of ordinary tights and have the money to order a hot chocolate at the café after school.
When a competition comes to Silverdale High looking for the next generation of entrepreneurs, Laurie finds herself unexpectedly in the spotlight. The homemade beauty remedies and potions that she has been posting online are stealing the show, and the most popular girl in the school wants to team up for the win. It seems like Laurie can achieve normality – and even popularity – at last. But will her eco-warrior family accept that she no longer wants to be part of their close-knit gang, and can she find success and glory without losing sight of her true self?
Joanne O’Connell’s Beauty and the Bin is a fresh and funny debut about friends, family, school and being a young eco-warrior.
Homemade Vegan
Back in the 1970s and 1980s, eating a plant-only diet was seen as a far more radical and counter-culture choice than it is today. Vegans were ahead of their time. micals, sugar, and salt, which are now so often added to the processed versions produced by major food manufacturers.
They were inventive, resourceful and creative. They squeezed vegetable juices, creamed cashew nuts into ‘cheeses, ‘ poured tofu into blocks (you couldn’t nip out to the grocers to buy a pack), mashed lentils into rissoles and stirred up everything from sugar-free puddings to soups and goulashes. What they came up with was an affordable way to eat healthy dairy alternatives, without the added chemicals, sugar, and salt, which are now so often added to the processed versions produced by major food manufacturers.
This book is a collection of recipes from this time and gives them a proper context, referring to the communities and households who created the recipes and what it was like for vegans back then.
book Reviews
“Engaging, inspiring and enlightening, I loved it” – Jen Carney, author of The Accidental Diary of B.U.G.
Vibes!
Stitched Up is about fashion, being fearless, the ups and downs of friendships, getting on (and not!) with family, the buzz of knitting, the brilliance of Taylor Swift, and how to fit in at school while still being yourself.
