I’ve suffered from depression off and on since my late teens and have also developed severe chronic migraines. However, I’m committed to not letting these conditions mean that I don’t live a rich life, even with limitations. Reading and the imagination are the key to me – and audiobooks and the radio when I’m not well enough to read. Works of art unite readers, even those who feel themselves in the dark, and reassure us that we’re not alone.
I wrote
Sunbathing in the Rain: A Cheerful Book on Depression
Set during the Second World War, these hilarious stories are about William, a young boy who has a very strong sense of himself. I identify with the scruffy, rebellious William. He’s always in trouble but has very passionate reasons for doing the things he does. The adult world baffles him, he’s the head of a gang that he leads, with his logic, into all kinds of scrapes. The world is unjust and he has to fit in with incomprehensible family values and oppose terrors like the vile and spoilt Violet Elizabeth Bott. I cheer for William against his older siblings and against the world that just doesn’t understand.
A tousle-headed, snub-nosed, hearty, lovable ball of mischief, William Brown has been harassing his unfortunate family and delighting his hundreds of thousands of admirers since 1922.
Part of the Macmillan Collector's Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition features original illustrations by Thomas Henry and a foreword by novelist, dramatist and screenwriter Roddy Doyle.
Just William is Richmal Crompton's first book about the incorrigible William Brown. Follow his adventures from getting over a school teacher crush…
Murderbot is another misfit, out of step with his world and how he’s meant to be. He’s a killer robot who has free will about how he behaves. He chooses to use his lethal abilities to help a group of people who’ve been targeted for assassination by a large corporation. Murderbot, who doesn’t understand human emotions uses his knowledge of drama series to navigate the human world and makes friends, which should be impossible for him. I love this character’s eccentricities and independence of mind, he makes me feel less strange myself.
All Systems Red by Martha Wells begins The Murderbot Diaries, a new science fiction action and adventure series that tackles questions of the ethics of sentient robotics. It appeals to fans of Westworld, Ex Machina, Ann Leckie's Imperial Raadch series, or lain M. Banks' Culture novels. The main character is a deadly security droid that has bucked its restrictive programming and is balanced between contemplative self discovery and an idle instinct to kill all humans. In a corporate dominated s pa cef a ring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by…
When I’m depressed I feel utterly helpless, so reading this story about a woman transforming a grim farm into a happy home is deeply reassuring. Flora Poste is a progressive young woman who goes to live with her cousins in the country. She uses her imagination to transform the gloomy life of each of her relatives, including Aunt Ada Doom ‘who saw something nasty in the woodshed’. The solutions are delightfully modern and cheering.
When the sukebind was in bud, the orphaned Flora Poste, expensively, athletically and lengthily educated, descended on her relatives at Cold Comfort Farm, which she rightly imagines will be awful in an interesting way. She takes it on herself to bring order into chaos.
I’m drawn to cheeky independent-minded people and Lorelei, the gold-digging flapper (played by Marilyn Monroe in the film of the name) is exactly that. Her most famous saying is: ‘A kiss on the hand may make you feel very nice, but a diamond and sapphire bracelet lasts forever.’ She embarks on a tour of Europe, which she assesses according to her own values. She meets Sigmund Freud, who wants to analyse her, but he finds it impossible because she’s so healthy. The humour is infectious and unforgettable.
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: The Intimate Diary of a Professional Lady (1925) is a novel by Anita Loos. Adapted from a series of stories written for Harper's Bazaar, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was an astounding success for Loos, who had mired for over a decade as a screenwriter in Hollywood and New York. An immediate bestseller, the novel earned praise from leading writers and critics of its time, and has been adapted several times for theater and film. Recognized as a defining text of the Jazz Age, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is an absolute classic dubbed "the great American novel" by Edith Wharton.…
Born the half-breed, bastard son of an orc chieftain, Wrank tries to survive life in OrcHome among ignorance and spite aimed at his human heritage even as he develops a Talent for folding shadow. When life is no longer viable among the clans, he escapes into the world of humans…
This award-winning fantasy novel is mysterious and full of wonders in exactly the way a depressed person can take in – maybe because the author herself suffers from a chronic condition. Piranesi keeps a diary and lives in an expanding palace with an infinite number of rooms and an indoor sea. The sense of amazement is catching and deeply satisfying, if you’re confined to bed or to your own house.
Winner of the 2021 Women's Prize for Fiction A SUNDAY TIMES & NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
The spectacular new novel from the bestselling author of JONATHAN STRANGE & MR NORRELL, 'one of our greatest living authors' NEW YORK MAGAZINE __________________________________ Piranesi lives in the House. Perhaps he always has.
In his notebooks, day after day, he makes a clear and careful record of its wonders: the labyrinth of halls, the thousands upon thousands of statues, the tides that thunder up staircases, the clouds that move in slow procession through the upper halls. On Tuesdays and Fridays Piranesi sees his friend,…
Written in short paragraphs, Sunbathing in the Rain is written for the person in the middle of an episode of depression. It consists of an account of a major episode I experienced, alongside quotations from my reading, which extends from philosophy to Hello! Magazine, advice on how to endure, then emerge from the dark. Full of realism and humour, the book is written to meet the depressed person and their loved ones exactly where they are and finds that there is deep life even in the worst of lows.
Country music diva Hayley Swift has fallen off the charts and into a funk. Desperate to regain her place in the limelight, she agrees to a low-budget tour of Southern venues, starting with her 35th high school reunion.
There, in an unexpected but fortuitous reconnection, The Girls Next Door —who…
It is 1948 in Berlin. The economy is broken, the currency worthless, and the Russian bear is preparing to swallow its next victim. In the ruins of Hitler's capital, former RAF officers and a woman pilot start an air ambulance company that offers a glimmer of hope. Yet when a…
