A Moment With…Hazel Hitchins

I’m so excited to be welcoming Hazel Hitchins  to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for her latest book, Babs & Aggie: The Good, The Bad and The Vegan.

Aggie has reached that “certain age” – in her case, a thousand years or so, give or take a decade.

After centuries of bringing kings to their knees, running a small-town cafe isn’t how she imagined her life would pan out. Now, thanks to the machinations of the false vegan from across the road, she risks losing even that. And just when she thinks things can’t get any worse, along comes her old friend, Babs, in her House-on-chicken-legs, ready to ruffle some feathers with her unique blend of borscht, tough love and alcohol.

But everybody has a secret – the grocer who hides his loneliness behind a cheery smile, the neighbour crippled by debt and grief, and the young woman who jumps at her shadow – and before Aggie can help anyone else, she has demons of her own to lay to rest.

Can she confront her past to save her future? What is the ‘Vegan’ really hiding? Will Babs ever let her have the last word?

Raucous, rowdy, and heart-wrenching and heart-warming in equal measures, Babs and Aggie is a magical tale of love, loss and the comfort of a friendship forged through food, laughter and a LOT of slivovica.

*****

To celebrate the release of her new novel, Hazel is going to talk about why she writes about women of a certain age. Over to you Hazel. 

The Invisible Woman:

Why I Write About Women of a Certain Age

If you subscribe to my newsletter, you’ll know that I often write about the pitfalls of being a “Woman Of a Certain Age”, such as never taking a chance on a sneeze and the feeling you get some days that you’re little more than a hot mess (sometimes literally) of hormones and HRT. It’s all very light-hearted and we laugh at these things because, frankly, it’s absurd. And normally, these ridiculous changes we go through are offset by experience and a greater understanding of how the world works, what’s worth getting worked up about and what we can let slide, so it’s all swings and roundabouts.

But there is a darker side to being a WOCA, namely that just as we realise we have all this knowledge and experience to share, society seems to decide we’re a bit of an embarrassment. We’ve nothing more to contribute. We’re too old to be desirable and too young to bury so instead, we are sidelined. We disappear from the screens and magazines in favour of the bright, young things (unless you are one of the great, British acting Dames, of course, whom nobody would dare sideline). We become invisible.

The idea that I might become invisible is something that didn’t occur to me in my younger days but if I’m honest, not much did occur to me. Growing up in a working-class household in the 80s and 90s, I still heard many of the comments that had been doing the rounds decades earlier, from “Boys don’t make passes at girls who wear glasses,” to “You’ll never get a boyfriend if you do/don’t [insert behaviour of choice]”. Just Seventeen and Cosmo taught me that my role was to look pretty and think about boys. Women of a Certain Age did exist but even then, they were background noise – mums, aunts, grannies. The type of women lampooned by comedians in floral housecoats and curlers, when turning forty was a fate worse than death.

Well, I have a confession. I’ve loved my forties, or as I call them, my “f – it forties”. It’s been the decade where I forged new, wonderful friendships, where my children were independent enough that I’ve had the time and headspace to think and create and where the angst and hand-wringing of my youth had melted away enough for me to stand up and shine a light on my accomplishments. And I know I’m not alone with that. Is it any wonder, then, that with all these wonderful things going on and so much to share with the world, finding yourself mocked, sidelined and silenced is more than just a little frustrating?

And is it any wonder that with all this frustration, I should choose to write characters who, much like the acting Dames mentioned above, refuse to allow the same to happen to them?

That’s what Babs and Aggie are to me. A reminder that being a “Woman of a Certain Age” – be it forty, fifty or 1050 – is not something shameful. It’s a reminder that we are relevant and real, that we can still make mistakes and have lessons to learn but we also have so much to offer and so much life still to live… and that life can be full of fun and hopefully, a call to action to refuse to be silenced. Remember, if in doubt, Be More Babs.

About Hazel Hitchins –

Hazel Hitchins is a writer who spends her days having conversations with her imaginary friends, some of which she writes down.

She lives in Wales with her normal family, normal(ish) cat, and entirely abnormal laundry pile.

Say hello to Hazel via Threads, Instagram and Facebook.

Babs & Aggie: The Good, The Bad and The Vegan is part of The Slippers and Sorcery Chronicles. It was released on 28th February 2025. Click here to buy on Amazon and Waterstones. 

by

Laura

I’m Laura. I started Novel Kicks in 2009. I wanted a place to post my writing as well as give other writers like me the opportunity to do the same. There is also a monthly book club, a writing room which features writing prompts, book reviews, competitions, author interviews and guest posts.

I grew up by the sea (my favourite place in the world) and I currently live in Hampshire. I am married to Chris, have a cat named Buddy and I would love to be a writer. I’m trying to write the novel I’ve talked so much about writing if only I could stop pressing delete. I’ve loved writing since creative writing classes in primary school. I have always wanted to see my teacher Miss Sayers again and thank her for the encouragement. When not trying to write the novel or writing snippets of stories on anything I can get my hands on, I love reading, dancing like a loon and singing to myself very badly. My current obsession is Once Upon a Time and I would be happy to live with magic in the enchanted forest surrounded by all those wonderful stories provided that world also included Harry Potter. I love reading chick lit. contemporary fiction and novels with mystery.