Although mental health, challenging family dynamics and sibling relationships are widely explored in fiction, there's something unique about this novel. I loved the humour and how the author uses it to highlight serious matters without trivialising them. It's hilarious, yet completely credible; tragic, yet hopeful; and moving without being overly sentimental.
A Times Best Fiction Book of the Year A Guardian Best Fiction Book of the Year A BBC Culture Book of the Year 'IT'LL EASILY BE ONE OF MY BOOKS OF THE YEAR' Hannah Beckerman
'It's a warm book and a touching one. And did I mention it's funny? Just read it. You'll see' The Times
'Funny, tender and sad' Sunday Express
'If you liked Meg Mason's Sorrow and Bliss, you'll love this novel' Good Housekeeping
'One of the richest explorations of family dysfunction I've read' the i newspaper
'Shades of Fleabag in this smart, funny drama' Mail on Sunday…
I like many things about this book. Meg Mason is an excellent writer and storyteller. (Her other novel, Sorrow & Bliss is a bestseller.) What I found particularly interesting and thought-provoking was the inter-generational friendship between young Abi and older Phyllida. I'm fascinated by how satisfying and complicated such friendships can be. It's a charming story with fabulous characters.
EVENING STANDARD'S 'BEST FICTION BOOKS TO LOOK FORWARD TO IN 2022'
What do you do, when you find the perfect family... ...and it's not yours?
'Rare and delightful . . . A beautifully crafted novel about female relationships. I couldn't put this book down' Marie Claire
The only thing Abi ever wanted was a proper family. So when she falls pregnant by an Australian exchange student in London, she cannot pack up her old life in Croydon fast enough, to start all over in Sydney and make her own family.
It is not until she arrives, with three-week-old Jude in…
I chose this book as a bit of research for my own writing and blown away by how much I enjoyed it and learned from it. I worked as a business journalist for much of my life, but learned more about unions and manufacturing from Victorian author, Elizabeth Gaskell than I did from anyone else. I also loved the slow-burn romance between Margaret and Mr. Thornton. Don't ignore the classics! They're classics for good reason.
As relevant now as when it was first published, Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South skilfully weaves a compelling love story into a clash between the pursuit of profit and humanitarian ideals. This Penguin Classics edition is edited with an introduction by Patricia Ingham.
When her father leaves the Church in a crisis of conscience, Margaret Hale is uprooted from her comfortable home in Hampshire to move with her family to the North of England. Initially repulsed by the ugliness of her new surroundings in the industrial town of Milton, Margaret becomes aware of the poverty and suffering of local mill…
Two women, decades apart. One unexpected friendship that will change them both.
From the acclaimed author of The Invincible Miss Cust and The Woman at the Wheel comes Follow Me to Africa, a transporting dual-timeline historical novel inspired by the life of groundbreaking paleoanthropologist Mary Leakey. From the cobblestone streets of 1930s London to the vast Serengeti plains of 1980s Tanzania, this is a story of resilience, discovery, and the unbreakable bonds that form across time.
In 1983, seventeen-year-old Grace Clark is grieving the loss of her mother and struggling to connect with a father she barely knows. When she's sent to help him on an archaeological dig at Olduvai Gorge, Grace meets the formidable Mary Leakey—a woman whose fierce intellect and independence helped reshape our understanding of human history.
Mary isn't just a scientist—she's a rebel who once infiltrated specialist lectures, illustrated fossils and stone tools, and carved out a place for herself in a male-dominated world. As Grace helps pack up decades of research, she's drawn into Mary's vivid memories—stories of ambition, forbidden love, and the discovery of a calling in the rugged heart of Africa.
Their growing friendship reveals unexpected parallels: the ache of being misunderstood, the courage to break rules, and the longing to find a place to belong. When Grace and a wounded cheetah vanish into the bush, it sparks a race against time—mirroring Mary's own journey to reclaim her path and protect what she values most.
Perfect for readers of historical fiction with strong female leads, Follow Me to Africa blends adventure, emotion, and real historical inspiration into a compelling tale of legacy and transformation.
