Lifestyle

Sunday with Sophie Walker: ‘I run to clear my head’


What time are you up? Having worked for 20 years at Reuters doing breaking news you become an early bird – a junkie for knowing what’s going on. But on Sunday I sleep until 8am. Over breakfast we have a (not always entirely democratic) vote with the kids to decide what we’ll do with our day.

Do you work? I’m at the Young Women’s Trust Monday to Friday, but at the weekend I work on Activate, a project to get women community activists elected. I try to take days off when I can. I’m fighting my own eternal battle to just be with my family.

The sound of Sunday? For a long time it was the morning TV politics shows, but since I’ve stepped down as leader of the Women’s Equality Party I’ve been able to dip in and out. When I was a teenager there’d be music coming out of mine and my sister’s room. Now my kids listen silently on their headphones.

Do you exercise? I run alone. I started 10 years ago, when my daughter was diagnosed with autism. I wanted to get fit to be able to support her. It became a way of clearing my head and to work through frustrations. In 2012 I ran my first marathon for the National Autistic Society – in so many ways a sign of how far our family had come.

How were Sundays spent growing up? At the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow. My parents were teachers, never ones to miss an opportunity for self-improvement. We’d walk there from our Byres Road tenement through the park. I knew every inch of the museum: where each painting was hung, the stuffed animals in each corner, the sounds and smells. I’ll be in the city on my book tour, and I can’t wait to go back.

Five Rules for Rebellion: Let’s Change the World Ourselves by Sophie Walker (Icon, £12.99) is available for £10.91 from guardianbookshop.com



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