In an occasional series, we’ll be catching up with various British authors and finding out about their books and their reading lives. In this post, Lizzy Dent, whose novel The Summer Job is out now and promises to be a big success!
Please tell us a bit about you and your latest book.
My book, The Summer Job, is all about Birdy, a hell raiser who needs to grow up but just can’t stop making bad decisions. When her best friend Heather runs away to Italy with her boyfriend, and pulls out of a job as a sommelier in the Highlands of Scotland, Birdy decides she should pretend to be Heather and go do the job instead. For someone as lost as she is, the prospect of free food and board at some crappy backwater hotel in exchange for a bit of wine pouring doesn’t seem like a crazy idea.
Only when she arrives, the hotel is newly renovated, the wine list is 124 wines long, and the chef is about to be her undoing!
What’s the last book you fell in love with and haven’t stopped thinking about and recommending?
I cannot stop thinking about Anxious People by Frederick Bregman. It’s just so brilliantly crafted and funny. There is a big shock about half way through that really leaves you stunned, but more than that – the characters, the story, the touching observations on human love, grief and relationships is just brilliant.
What’s the last book you bought for someone else?
I just bought a bunch of copies of my book for my family! (should be the other way around, right! Ha!). But seriously, I love cookbooks so much, and I always love to buy and share them with people. The last one I bought was Nigella Lawson’s Cook, Eat, Repeat for my partner, but the last novel I bought was Where The Crawdads Sing for my friend. For me, this was an almost perfect story. Absolutely adored it.
What’s the last book someone gave you?
On Writing by Steven King from my friend Carolyn. It was an encouragement for me to start writing… I guess it worked!
What’s on your bedside table to read next?
My TBR is getting out of control! One of the perks of being an author is that I get lots of free books, so right now I’m racing through Lucy Vine’s Bad Choices (spoiler: it’s brilliant), and then next up it’s Dial A For Aunties by Jesse Q Sutanto, The Couple by Helly Acton, The Stranding by Kate Sawyer and I’ve just finished the STUNNING Before You Knew My Name by Jacquiline Bublitz.
If you’re an author who’d like to tell us about your Five Books, drop me a line at [email protected] with the subject line FIVE BOOKS. Priority will be given to traditionally published authors and those from a BAME background.
