Rachel Kelly

Rachel Kelly worked as a journalist for The Times newspaper in the UK from 1989 to 1999.{{Cite news |last=Carpenter |first=Louise |date=2023-12-15 |title=Rachel Kelly: my battle with depression |language=en |url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/rachel-kelly-my-battle-with-depression-9rthwt67c87 |access-date=2023-12-15 |issn=0140-0460}} She now writes for The New Statesman,{{Cite web |last=Kelly |first=Rachel |date=2022-03-19 |title=Inside the mental health epidemic among teenage girls |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/health/2022/03/inside-the-mental-health-epidemic-among-teenage-girls |access-date=2023-12-15 |website=New Statesman |language=en-US}} The Guardian,{{Cite news |last=Kelly |first=Rachel |date=2022-03-13 |title=Striving to be a supermum does nobody any good, including the kids |language=en-GB |work=The Observer |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/13/striving-to-be-supermum-does-nobody-any-good |access-date=2023-12-15 |issn=0029-7712}} and The Sunday Times.{{Cite news |last=Kelly |first=Rachel |date=2023-12-15 |title=Is there really a mental health crisis among the over-50s — or should they get back to work? |language=en |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/healthcare/article/is-there-really-a-mental-health-crisis-among-the-over-50s-or-should-they-get-back-to-work-3q05sgs6m |access-date=2023-12-15 |issn=0140-0460}} She has served as a commentator on the BBC.{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09sqj83|title=22/02/2018, Newsnight - BBC Two|publisher=BBC}} She is an ambassador for SANE{{Cite web |title=Profiles |url=https://www.sane.org.uk/who-we-are/ambassadors-champions/profiles |access-date=2023-12-15 |website=SANE |language=en-GB}} and Rethink Mental Illness{{Cite web |title=Supporters & ambassadors |url=https://www.rethink.org/aboutus/who-we-are/people-and-governance/supporters-ambassadors/ |access-date=2024-01-26 |website=Supporters & ambassadors |language=en}} and runs wellbeing workshops for companies, schools and universities.

Her first book Black Rainbow: How Words Healed Me — My Journey Through Depression was published by Hachette in the UK, Quercus in the US as well as in France and Sweden. Black Rainbow appeared on the Sunday Times bestseller list.{{cite news |publisher=The Sunday Times Saturday Review |title=Bestsellers Hardback Nonfiction |date=May 27, 2014 |page=18}} The book details her experience of depression, including a hospitalisation for suicide risk, and how poetry helped her recover. The work is an autobiographical account of her life. Black Rainbow was published in France by Larousse under the title La Nuit N’en Finit Pas{{Cite web |date=2023-06-04 |title=La nuit n'en finit pas |url=https://www.editions-larousse.fr/livre/la-nuit-nen-finit-pas-9782035985606 |access-date=2024-01-25 |website=www.editions-larousse.fr |language=fr}} (the title is suggestive of a song in French by the British singer Petula Clark in 1961).

Her second book Walking on Sunshine: 52 Small Steps to Happiness (the title suggestive of a song by Katrina and the Waves 1983) was published by Short Books in 2015 and has been translated into German, Arabic, Mandarin, Polish, Korean, Turkish and Croatian as well as being published in the USA, Canada, and Australia. The chapters revolve around activities and other ideas that have helped Kelly in the past in dealing with her depression. In the New Statesman, India Bourke wrote of Walking on Sunshine that, "Drawing equally from science and art, each chapter (one for every week of the year) offers salves for both body and mind, from probiotics to poetry." {{Cite web |title=Road to Happy |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/06/books/review/how-to-be-happy.html |website=The New York Times}} Walking on Sunshine reached #4 on Amazon’s best-seller list{{Cite news |last=Cocker |first=Rachel |date=2017-06-01 |title=The tiny steps that can lead you to happiness |language=en-GB |work=The Telegraph |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/mind/how-dialling-up-your-mental-outlook/ |access-date=2023-12-15 |issn=0307-1235}} in the UK as well as #1.{{Cite web |last=Prynn |first=Jonathan |date=2017-02-16 |title=Amazon customers in London spend big on fitness and wellbeing |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/shopping/amazon-customers-in-london-spend-big-on-fitness-healthy-eating-and-wellbeing-a3288041.html |access-date=2023-12-15 |website=Evening Standard |language=en}}

Her third book The Happy Kitchen – Good Mood Food with nutritionist Alice Mackintosh was published in 2017 with Short Books in the UK and as The Happiness Diet with Simon & Schuster in the US. The book discusses the role of nutrition in the treatment of depression, and includes recipes that were developed for that reason.{{Cite web |date=2017-04-24 |title=7 recipes from The Happy Kitchen by Rachel Kelly |url=https://www.smh.com.au/goodfood/recipes/7-recipes-from-the-happy-kitchen-by-rachel-kelly-20170403-gvcd8m.html |access-date=2023-12-15 |website=Good Food |language=en}}

In 2019 she published Singing in the Rain: 52 Practical Steps to Happiness – An Inspirational Workbook (title inspired by the broadway song Singing in the Rain). In The Telegraph, James Le Fanu wrote of the work that, "Since being incapacitated by a couple of severe episodes of depression in her thirties, journalist and Telegraph contributor Rachel Kelly has been canvassing fellow sufferers through her website and workshops, inviting them to report simple practical ways they have found to keep themselves on an even keel. These range through rising early to allow for a leisurely start to the day, wearing colourful, morale-boosting clothes, making a point of identifying and enjoying simple pleasures and reciting, when stressed, private prayers or mantras."{{cite news |publisher=The Daily Telegraph |title=Don't think, just do |date=February 4, 2019 |page=18}}

You’ll Never Walk Alone: Poems for life’s ups and downs (title inspired by the Rogers and Hammerstein song You’ll Never Walk Alone) was published by Hachette in 2022.{{Cite book |url=https://www.yellowkitebooks.co.uk/titles/rachel-kelly/youll-never-walk-alone/9781529395341/ |title=You'll Never Walk Alone |date=2021-10-13 |isbn=978-1-5293-9534-1 |language=en-US}}

Her next book ‘The Gift of Teenagers: Connect More, Worry Less’ will be published in May 2025 by Hachette. Educator Sir Anthony Seldon has written of the book ‘Every parent should buy this book. It is full of practical strategies to connect with your teenager’.

Rachel Kelly is married to Sebastian Grigg. They have five children.{{cite web |date=19 Apr 2014 |title=Rachel Kelly: my battle with depression |url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/rachel-kelly-my-battle-with-depression-9rthwt67c87 |publisher=The Times}} She uses her name Rachel Kelly on all her writing and mental health work.

{{reflist}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kelly, Rachel}}

Category:Living people

Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford

Category:21st-century British writers

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)