Laura Brand: Author, Illustrator and Creator of The Joy Journal

Laura Brand is a British author and illustrator, born Laura Gallacher, who is best known for The Joy Journal for Magical Everyday Play, a Sunday Times bestselling book of mindful craft and play activities for children and their grown-ups, first published in 2020. As of October 2026, she has published three books under the name Laura Brand, and she shares her creative work through her online platform, also called The Joy Journal. Although she is often searched for as the wife of comedian Russell Brand, her own public identity is built on writing, illustration and a simple idea: that everyday play, nature and making things by hand can support family connection and wellbeing.

At a Glance

• Full name: Laura Brand, née Gallacher
• Born: 28 June 1987, according to Grazia — she is 39 years old as of October 2026
• Profession: Author and illustrator
• Best-known book: The Joy Journal for Magical Everyday Play (Bluebird, an imprint of Pan Macmillan, 2020)
• Other books: The Joy Journal for Grown-ups (2022) and Slow Down and Be Here Now (2022)
• Platform: The Joy Journal, where she shares craft ideas and activities for everyday play
• Family: Daughter of former professional golfer Bernard Gallacher; younger sister of television and radio presenter Kirsty Gallacher
• Married: Russell Brand, in August 2017; the couple have three children

Who Is Laura Brand?

Laura Brand is the married name of Laura Gallacher. According to her publisher, Pan Macmillan, she is an author and illustrator who shares her craft experiments and creative ideas for everyday play in her books and on her online platform, The Joy Journal. Her publisher describes The Joy Journal for Magical Everyday Play as a Sunday Times bestseller, and that description — a bestselling author of practical, play-based books — is the most accurate short answer to who she is.

Her profile is noticeably quieter than that of many people connected to famous partners. She has no long television career of her own, and most reputable coverage of her focuses on three things: her family background, her marriage, and, increasingly since 2020, her books. The books are the part of her story that is entirely hers. They grew out of ideas she was already sharing online and in workshops, and they were tested, by her own account as presented by her publisher, in the ordinary reality of raising very young children.

That distinction matters for readers arriving from a search for “Laura Brand” in October 2026. The name belongs first to a working writer and illustrator. The celebrity connection explains part of the search interest, but it does not explain the work itself.

What Is Laura Brand’s Family Background?

Laura Gallacher grew up on the Wentworth Estate in Surrey, England, according to Grazia. Her father is Bernard Gallacher, the Scottish former professional golfer who captained the European Ryder Cup team, and her older sister is Kirsty Gallacher, who became well known as a presenter on Sky Sports News in the late 1990s and has since worked across television and radio, including GB News and Smooth Radio, as Grazia reports.

Laura’s route into public life was different from both her father’s and her sister’s. She did not pursue sport or presenting. Reports in The Standard, summarised in recent coverage, say she studied art at university before working in restaurant and nightclub management.

Grazia also reports that she was involved in the opening of Electric Diner, a restaurant owned by Soho House. That hospitality chapter shows The Joy Journal was not her first career, but a change of direction built on art study and on ideas she developed as a parent.

How Did The Joy Journal Begin?

Before it was a book, The Joy Journal was Laura Brand’s platform for sharing crafty experiments and creative ideas for everyday play. The Bookseller, reporting the publishing deal in 2019, noted that she shared her ideas on the Instagram platform @thejoyjournal and regularly ran workshops for children, including at Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place Festival and Port Eliot Festival. That workshop work matters, because it shows the book did not begin as a celebrity tie-in. It began as a practice — activities tried out with real children, in real settings, and refined in public.

When the publisher Bluebird acquired the book, The Bookseller reported that publisher Carole Tonkinson bought world rights in all languages from agent Cathryn Summerhayes at Curtis Brown, and that the book would be published in March 2020 with a foreword by Fearne Cotton. A professional agent, a trade publisher and a festival workshop record are the ordinary machinery of a publishing career, and Laura Brand had all three in place before her first book appeared.

Brand is not the only private citizen whose biography is suddenly searched because of a famous family connection — our profile of Amber Jones Robinson looks at another woman who came to public attention through a family member’s case.

What Is The Joy Journal for Magical Everyday Play About?

The Joy Journal for Magical Everyday Play: Easy Activities & Creative Craft for Kids and Their Grown-ups was published in paperback by Bluebird on 16 April 2020, according to Waterstones. It runs to 208 pages, has the ISBN 9781529025590, and includes a foreword by Fearne Cotton.

The book contains 50 activities, according to its publisher’s description. They are deliberately low-prep: ideas built around store-cupboard ingredients, basic craft materials and things that can be foraged, rather than specialist equipment. Examples named by the publisher include moon sand, flower soup and nature wands. Activities cover indoor and outdoor play, rainy days, bath time, long journeys and play dates, and they are organised to take families through the seasons and through the day.

Two practical details set the book apart from a generic activity collection. First, each activity is assessed for practical risk factors — how much effort it takes, how long it is likely to hold a child’s attention, and how much mess it makes. Any parent who has started an ambitious craft project at the wrong moment will understand why that grading is valuable. Second, the publisher stresses that Brand tested the activities while raising two children under the age of two, and that she writes honestly about what worked, what did not, and the accidents along the way. The target reader, in the publisher’s description, is anyone looking after toddlers and pre-schoolers — and the grown-ups are treated as participants who should enjoy the activity too, not just supervise it.

The underlying aim is consistent across all of her work: to encourage a connection to nature, joy and bonding between children and adults, while offering an alternative to screen time. Nothing in the book requires an expensive kit or performing parenthood for an audience.

What Other Books Has Laura Brand Written?

The Joy Journal for Grown-ups (2022)

Her second book applied the same approach to adults. The Joy Journal for Grown-ups: 50 Homemade Craft Ideas to Inspire Creativity and Connection was published in hardback by Bluebird on 31 March 2022, according to Pan Macmillan. It contains 50 imaginative craft ideas, includes a foreword by cookery writer Melissa Hemsley, and invites readers to slow down, experiment and recover some of the freedom of play from childhood.

The projects named by the publisher include flower-pressed candles, scented body butter and origami hearts, using store-cupboard ingredients and easily foraged supplies. Where the first book is about playing with children, this one is about carving out time for yourself and for shared creative experiences with friends — making gifts and keepsakes, and adding a personal touch to celebrations. Pan Macmillan presents creative activity, in Brand’s work, as something that positively affects her own mental health and wellbeing and provides a break in a busy world. That framing — craft as a calm, accessible habit rather than a performance — is the thread that connects the two Joy Journal books.

Slow Down and Be Here Now (2022)

Later the same year came her first book written specifically for children. Slow Down and Be Here Now: More Nature Stories to Make You Stop, Look and Be Amazed by the Tiniest Things was published by Magic Cat Publishing on 29 September 2022. It is a 64-page hardback, illustrated by Freya Hartas, and forms part of the Slow Down series.

The book contains 20 short nature stories, according to its publisher’s description as carried by booksellers. Each one focuses on a small, easily missed moment in the natural world — the examples given include a hummingbird drinking nectar, a pea shoot emerging, and a snail coming out to drink — and pairs the story with real facts about animals, plants and weather. The reading age given by retailers is roughly five to twelve years, although the publisher’s positioning, like the rest of Brand’s work, assumes a grown-up will often be reading alongside the child.

The shift is worth noting. In the Joy Journal books, nature is a source of materials for making things. In Slow Down and Be Here Now, nature is the subject itself, and the activity is attention: stop, watch, and be amazed by something small. It is the same philosophy expressed for a different reader.

What Does Laura Brand Do Beyond Her Books?

Brand’s work around the books has included leading workshops for children and adults at festivals including Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place Festival and the Port Eliot Festival, according to Pan Macmillan’s author biography. She has also discussed her work and family life as a guest on the Made by Mammas podcast, hosted by Zoe Hardman and Georgia Dayton, where she talked about reconnecting with her husband and about early parenthood.

Grazia reports that she has also sold her own dungarees under The Joy Journal umbrella, and that she and Russell Brand run the Stay Free Foundation together, which supports people with addiction and mental health issues. Those details are reported here as Grazia reports them.

Taken together, her public work forms a coherent whole: a platform, three books, festival workshops and occasional interviews, all on the same themes of play, craft, nature and slowing down.

How Did Laura Brand Meet Russell Brand, and When Did They Marry?

Laura Gallacher first met Russell Brand in 2007, when she was a 19-year-old art student, after being introduced by her sister Kirsty, according to Grazia and Hello! magazine. They dated briefly at the time, then parted. They reconnected by chance in 2015, when, as she later told Grazia, a friend persuaded her to go for a walk along a canal in east London and they encountered him there. She told You magazine, in comments reported by Hello!, that he spoke of wanting a quiet life and a family, and that this matched what she wanted.

The couple married in August 2017, in a service at Remenham Church near their home in Henley-on-Thames, according to Grazia. They have three children: a daughter, Mabel, born in November 2016; a second daughter, Peggy, born in July 2018; and a son, born in 2023, as reported by Grazia and Hello!. The couple have generally kept their children out of the public spotlight, and reputable coverage of the family is correspondingly brief.

For this profile, the marriage is context, not the subject. It explains why searches for Laura Brand rise whenever her husband is in the news, but her books, platform and workshops stand as a separate body of work with its own publisher, audience and record.

Why Is Laura Brand in the News in October 2026?

Interest in Laura Brand rose in October 2026 because she accompanied her husband to court. According to the Associated Press report of 12 October 2026, Russell Brand appeared at Southwark Crown Court in London for the start of his trial, arriving flanked by security guards and accompanied by his wife, and later leaving the building holding hands with her after a morning of jury selection.

The facts of the case, as reported by the Associated Press as of October 2026, are these: Russell Brand, 51, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one count of indecent assault. The charges involve six women and alleged offences between 1999 and 2009, and the trial was expected to last up to 10 weeks. These are charges and allegations, not findings of guilt, and no verdict had been reached at the time of that reporting. Laura Brand is not accused of any offence, and reports of her court appearance do not record a public statement from her about the charges. Readers should treat her presence at court as exactly what the reporting shows — attendance alongside her husband — and nothing more.

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