Suzanne ready to go global with Batch Lady book

A Borders mum-turned-online sensation, thanks to her cookery video blog, is going global to share her time-saving tips, having just put out her first cookery book.
Suzanne Mulholland with her new book.Suzanne Mulholland with her new book.
Suzanne Mulholland with her new book.

The Batch Lady, otherwise known as Suzanne Mulholland, has an online global following of more than 120,000, having found fame with cookery videos she produces in her Ettrick Valley farmhouse kitchen.

Suzanne, 44, has been broadcasting videos sharing her knack of batch cooking and meal planning online for almost two years.

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And now she’s been signed up by US-based publisher HarperCollins.

Suzanne Mulholland.Suzanne Mulholland.
Suzanne Mulholland.

Her 80-recipe book, called The Batch Lady and subtitled ‘shop once, cook once, eat well all week’, went on sale last week and has already reached No 4 in the Sunday Times bestseller list.

“It’s very exciting,” the mum of two said. “I saw the recipes on paper a while ago as I had to finish the book such a long time ago, but holding them in the finished book is surreal, and it’s great seeing it all over the shelves of Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury’s.”

The hardcover book, also available as an ebook, is Suzanne’s first, and it features not only recipes but planners, shopping lists and batch cooking tips.

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“It’s an easy-to-follow, clearly laid-out book,” Suzanne added. “Rather than being just a cookery book, I see it as a practical guide to getting meals in the freezer.

“The recipes are all paired up so people can make double the meals while they’re at it.”

An expert in how to reclaim time by organising meals for a week at a time, Suzanne lives with husband Peter and children Jake, 13, and Zara, 11, on her family’s farm in the Ettrick Valley, having moved back to the Borders from Edinburgh 16 years ago.

It took Suzanne about six months to write the book, with her publisher keen to see a mix of new and old recipes included.

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“When I was writing it, I was constantly worrying if people were actually going to buy it and read it, but I needn’t have worried as it’s selling out and the response has been phenomenal,” she said.

Suzanne says it was looking after children that turned meal planning into a way of life for her.

“I started the Batch Lady two years ago, and this is definitely not something that I thought would ever happen,” she added.

“What I really would like to do with the Batch Lady is show people that no matter where you live, be it in a rural community like mine or in the centre of London, there is no limit to how many people you can reach, thanks to the internet.

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“And to be fourth on the Sunday Times bestseller list is as good as I ever could have hoped.”

The Batch Lady Facebook page boasts almost 70,000 followers, and 50,000 more enjoy the free videos published between Suzanne’s website, Instagram and Twitter platforms.

And her audience could be about to rocket even further as she heads off on a promotional book launch tour of Europe, Canada, Australia and America in the coming months.