Dawn O’Porter on the magic of Guernsey, L.A. gardens and hiking fashion
7/16/202636 min
Dawn’s not a gardener yet... but the knee pad is calling.
We welcome Dawn O’Porter to our garden for an enlightening episode that starts with a chat about Harry Styles and ends with a conversation about Sandwich the tortoise. Two total icons in one show.
Dawn joins us as she embarks on a few new journeys within her already incredible career. A writer, director and TV presenter, Dawn is in the early days of her new gig for Classic FM, where you can hear her on Saturday afternoons, from 12-3pm. She also is celebrating the release of her new memoir, Hungry Eyes, which looks at her favourite moments and memories associated with great meals and ingredients. The book is so good Caitlin has read it three times already.
Dawn, who co-founded Choose Love, an organisation which provides help and support for refugees and displaced people, was born in Scotland and raised in Guernsey; two great sources for outside inspiration and formative memories. She now lives in Kew with her husband Chris O’Dowd and children, after moving back to the UK from a life in Los Angeles.
With Kew so close by, we find out about Dawn’s relationship with gardening, the power of the Guernsey cliffs, and why a Weeping Willow is her favourite tree.
Let us know if you’re enjoying Outsiding and please send us your favourite outside places, memories, smells and gardening questions to hello@outsiding.co.uk
Follow Outsiding on Substack for gardening tips, tricks, upcoming live Q&As with Adam and the progress of Caitlin’s garden project. Find us on Instagram too.
You can watch full episodes of Outsiding on Spotify and YouTube.
Outsiding is a Cold Glass Production.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsAdam Frost· Host0:00
Outside In is a Cold Glass production. [upbeat music] I am Adam Frost.
Caitlin Moran· Host0:04
And I am Caitlin Moran.
Adam Frost· Host0:06
And this is Outside In, our show about the joys of being in the garden.
Caitlin Moran· Host0:11
And why we think the outside is the best place to be.
Adam Frost· Host0:15
[upbeat music] Hello, welcome to Outside In. I'm Adam Frost.
Caitlin Moran· Host0:22
And I'm Caitlin Moran.
Adam Frost· Host0:23
Where are we?
Caitlin Moran· Host0:24
We are in what I like to describe as an Elysian glade.
Adam Frost· Host0:27
Better known [laughs] as a cherry tree.
Caitlin Moran· Host0:31
Yeah, but you gotta give it a bit of razzle-dazzle. It's, it's elven and stuff. I wanted to know if you recognize this plant to my left.
Adam Frost· Host0:37
I do. That is, um, professionally known as a cotinus, which is a shrub, um, renamed by Bob Mortimer as- The cheeky bastard ... the cheeky bastard.
Caitlin Moran· Host0:49
Yeah.
Adam Frost· Host0:49
Yeah.
Caitlin Moran· Host0:49
[laughs] And he hated it so much, he took a violent dislike to it- Yeah ... and left it here. He tried to gift it to him, and he left it here, and I was like, "Waste not, want not. Let's pop it here." Have I planted it in the right place?
Adam Frost· Host0:58
It's probably a little bit shady, but actually if you leave it there for the bit and then maybe move it when the weather cools down back end of the year.
Caitlin Moran· Host1:07
I've had a very busy week, so it's gonna have to wait for a while.
Adam Frost· Host1:09
Yeah, what you been up to?
Caitlin Moran· Host1:10
Well, I've been doing the audiobook for my new book, and you've done audiobooks. You know, it's ... You're, you're stuck in a basically a wardrobe for three days reading your book out loud going, "Did I write this? Did I write this?" Um, but the problem was that the clothes I was wearing were very rustly. Um, so halfway through the engineer went, "I'm gonna give you some professional advice. Just [laughs] take your dress off and do it in your bra and pants." So, [laughs] spent- So literally