Emma Barnett and Jeremy Weil: a life in full colour

What was your inspiration for producing a colouring book? 

Jeremy: "We were on our second maternity and paternity leave, walking the streets as you do endlessly quite a lot of the time. We were wondering for our five year old at the time, how would he get to know his area a bit better? He was big into colouring and so that was the idea.

"We were chatting and wondering if a colouring book of his local area existed, we had a look and there wasn't. So we made a version of one to start with and our son liked it. His friend saw it and liked it, so we thought let's design a proper one! And the rest is history."

This one is Nottingham focused - what were some of your favourite spots in the city as students? 

Emma: "I loved coming to a campus university - there were particular spots I adored, such as the Trent Building and Lakeside. Being president of the New Theatre meant that was a special place too.

"I really liked that you had the campus and town, which were quite separate, but you felt like you were still part of both of them.

"It just felt, having come from Manchester, but obviously not as big a city as Jeremy had come from in London, that there was a lot in Nottingham you could really get into and finding different places, from tiny cinemas through to Broadway, through to the cultural life and the music halls, it all felt very rich indeed. But then you could just come back to campus and be within another world entirely."

You're both incredibly busy. How do you find time to prioritise your wellbeing?

Emma: "We're fortunate that our children are growing up in a house with so many colouring books and so many pencils and markers. If I don't use them it would be a crying shame and every time I do, I remember why we know other people feel it's a very good thing.

"If I'd actually had colouring offered to me in some way through the shop or whatever at university, I would have really loved it. But it wasn't really something we were we were doing then, and I'm really happy that it is now."

Jeremy: "What I find is that if I sit down to do it at the kitchen table, the children are also far more interested in it, and they'll both sit down with their own book and actually, in many ways, them colouring in gives me 25 minutes of peace and quiet as well."

Emma: "Jeremy's really neat and takes quite a long time, whereas, typical journalist, I just want to get it completed and move on."

Do you have any advice for alumni wanting to pursue a passion project?

Jeremy: "I had a full-time office job, so this project started in my evenings and weekends. I found that when I stopped watching Netflix there was quite a lot of time available!

"I was helped by having young children because that also forces you to be in quite a lot of the time. You put them to bed and then you have a choice. Of course you might be tired, but I found I actually got a lot of energy from the project - pursuing it felt exciting and new."

Emma: "Jeremy studied business, he's an entrepreneur to his core. Even when we met, he was running a club night here with some friends in the city! I'm entrepreneurial too, but I would say I apply it creatively, whether it's setting up a new section at a newspaper like I did at the Daily Telegraph, or perhaps taking a programme like Woman's Hour into a different direction.

"I've loved bringing my skills to this, and we very much do it together. I very much look at the editorial and the stories we can tell, and my biggest contribution is that I am the constant sightseer. So I do make us go out and see things all the time, I run a very tight cultural calendar. The endless tourist over here, probably plays quite well into that, as well as storytelling."

What's your advice for readers who have recently graduated and are starting out in their career?

Jeremy: "You can leave university, get your first job, and think, 'this is it, now I can't ever make a change.' But I don't think that's the case.

"If we're lucky, it's a reasonably long life and a long working life particularly. You can do different things and it's good not to get trapped into the habit or the mindset that 'this was the first thing I did and I'm going to have to stay in this industry.' I think that's absolutely not the case and if you want to try something different, you can definitely do that.

"You might have to retrain or do things slightly differently, but you don't have to stick in the same career for 40 years anymore, and I would encourage people not to."

Emma: "And get a pension!"

What is it like to be back on campus?

Emma: "I'm a huge fan. I genuinely feel the sun is always shining in Nottingham and having lived elsewhere, I can assure you that's not always the case. I really like that feeling of coming onto campus, I think it's very special, it's what drew me to it.

"You feel strange because you remember it, but you don't. You look down certain roads you've walked down, and there are other students doing it, and I think there's a great energy of being here.

"We weren't quite sure how it would feel or what to expect, but it's very, very good to be back."

Jeremy: "It's hugely nostalgic. We both had such a good time here, even independently before we knew each other. Obviously, the rest of our lives we owe a lot to Nottingham for that, too.

"Sometimes it's hard to believe we are maybe as old as we are, I can remember being here in halls really like it was yesterday."