83. Helen Taylor on The Meaning and Legacy of a Childfree Life

In this latest podcast episode, Keltie Maguire speaks with Helen Taylor — feminist, retired university professor, and writer — about her choice to live a childfree life and her new memoir, Childless by Choice: The Meaning and Legacy of a Childfree Life. 

Keltie and Helen discuss:

• Helen's personal journey of childfree living, including the influences that shaped her decision. 
  
  
• The challenges of choosing the childfree path — and the freedoms it has afforded her.

• Helen's abortion experience in early adulthood, and whether she ever thinks about the child she could have had. 

• How life without children can lead to deeper adult relationships and friendships.
  
  
• The societal stigmas surrounding childlessness, and the difficulties and blessings of being childfree at age 77
  
  
• The role that regret, meaning, and legacy play for Helen, as a woman without children.

(1:46) Meet Helen and her Kids or Childfree decision

(10:50) Making the childfree choice 50 years ago, without childfree role models

(20:10) Helen's abortion when she was 19

(29:44) Maternal relationships Helen has had

(35:22) Pros and cons of childfree living; navigating regret and comparison

(47:15) Being childfree in her 70s

As mentioned in the show

Find Helen online at www.helen-taylor.co.uk

She's on Bluesky at bsky.app/profile/helentaylor67.bsky.social

Find Helen at the following upcoming events: helen-taylor.co.uk/events

About Helen

Helen Taylor has published books on women's writing, American southern culture, and women fiction readers. Her latest much-acclaimed work is Why Women Read Fiction: The Stories of Our Lives. Her best-known works focus on popular writing and culture: Scarlett's Women: Gone With the Wind and its Female Fans, The Daphne du Maurier Companion, and Circling Dixie: Contemporary Southern Culture through a Transatlantic Lens. Her new book is Childless by Choice: The Meaning and Legacy of a Child-free Life. 

She taught English and American literature at three universities – West of England, Warwick and Exeter, where she was Head of English and is now Emeritus Professor. She has published widely on the literature and culture of the American South, as well as British and American women's writing. For many years, she has been a Chair, Curator and participant in many literary festivals, including Bath, Cheltenham, Oxford, Fowey, Budleigh Salterton and Clifton, and she was the first Director of the Liverpool Literature Festival. She is currently writing a book on Daphne du Maurier for the series 'Writers and Their Works'. She lives in Bristol.

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