My life in books Sarra Manning
As Red’s literary editor publishes her latest novel, Rescue Me – an uplifting romantic comedy for dog-lovers – she shares the reads that have shaped her life
MY FAVOURITE BOOK AS A CHILD WAS…
Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild, which I re-read every year. The tale of the three Fossil sisters (Pauline, the actress; Petrova, obsessed with cars; and little Posy, the ballet dancer) is such a lovely, comforting story about following your dreams and the need to stick to a household budget. And yes, I still want to be Petrova when I grow up.
THE ONE BOOK I THINK EVERYONE SHOULD READ IS…
The Secret History by Donna Tartt; an immersive literary thriller and murder mystery set in the small, closeted world of an elite New England college and told through the eyes of Richard, who doesn’t quite belong. I literally could not put it down the first time I read it – I nearly got run over as I walked down the street with my nose in this book. I’ve read it at least 10 times and each time find something new in the story. I defy anyone not to love it!
MY FAVOURITE LINE FROM A BOOK IS…
This line from A Room Of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf always sets me right when I’m having an attack of the Not Good Enoughs: ‘No need to hurry. No need to sparkle. No need to be anybody but oneself’.
THE CHARACTER I RELATE TO MOST IS…
Harriet from Harriet by Jilly Cooper. Hmmm, I wonder what it could be that makes me relate so much to this scatty, daydreaming bookworm? Alas, unlike Harriet, I have no sardonic playwrights with good cheekbones in my life.
THE LAST BOOK THAT MADE ME CRY WAS…
Long Live Great
Bardfield, the autobiography of artist
Tirzah Garwood, wife of the more famous Eric Ravilious. Her voice just roars off the page as she writes about their ramshackle, bohemian life, love (lots of affairs!) and art. Eric died during the war and Tirzah died of cancer in 1951, having had to find someone to adopt her three children. I can’t imagine a more heart-wrenching task and I have never sobbed so much over a book.
THE BOOK THAT GOT ME THROUGH A DIFFICULT TIME WAS…
Live Alone And Like It is a 1936 guide by a US Vogue editor, Marjorie Hillis, about how to turn living alone into a sybaritic art form. ‘Living alone, you can do as you like. The trick is to arrange your life so you do really like it,’ Hillis advocates. Her advice got me through lockdown and also enabled the baking of many cakes – as well as the purchase of lots of posh scented candles and fancy bed linen.
MY FAVOURITE CHARACTER FROM A BOOK IS…
Becky Sharp, from
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray.
I fell in love with Becky
Sharp when I was writing my own modern retelling of Vanity Fair,
The Rise And Fall Of Becky Sharp. Becky comes from nothing and through her own ambition, guts and absolute lack of any kind of conscience, acquires wealth, status and celebrity at a time when women were entirely beholden to men. Becky is completely brazen and unapologetic, and I love her for it.
MY ALL-TIME FAVOURITE BOOK IS…
It’s actually five books:
The Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard. Starting with
The Light Years, the series follows three generations of women in an upper middle-class family through the Second World War and their friendships, marriages and affairs. These books are literary enough that I feel smart for reading them, but also so full of longing and sex and people behaving badly that it’s impossible not to binge the whole lot as fast as you can read them.
Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson (Viking, out 4th February) A stunning debut novel about two young Black British people falling in and out of love, set against the backdrop of contemporary south-east London. Written in a unique second-person style, and with profound insight into race and masculinity, it’s a tender love story you won’t forget.
Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid (Hutchinson, out 27th May)
The bestselling author of Daisy Jones & The Six returns with this story about one unforgettable night. Set in Malibu in 1983, it’s Nina Riva’s annual end-of-summer party, and by morning, the mansion will be up in flames. But before that, the loves and secrets that shaped the Riva family will bubble up to the surface.
Conversations On Love by Natasha Lunn
(Viking, out 15th July)
Red’s features director has always been in awe of love, which is why she created her wildly popular newsletter to investigate love in all its forms, one conversation at a time. This year, she releases a book
of the same name, which asks: how do we find love? How do we sustain it? And how do we survive when we lose it? Drawing on her own experiences alongside insightful interviews with the likes of Alain de Botton and Esther Perel, this book will change the way you view life and love for ever.
The Startup Wife by Tahmima Anam (Canongate, out 3rd June) Newlyweds Asha and Cyrus build an app that replaces religious rituals, which soon becomes one of the world’s most popular social media platforms. But will they survive the pressures of fame? Gillian Anderson called it ‘gloriously readable, irresistibly funny and smarter than you realise until you turn the final, triumphant page’.
Insatiable by Daisy Buchanan (Sphere, out 11th February)
The first novel from journalist and podcaster Buchanan is raucously filthy, with fans including Dolly Alderton, Louise O’neill and Laura Jane Williams. Violet wants more from her life – then she becomes enveloped in the glamorous world of Lottie and her husband Simon, and their Friday night sex parties. It’s funny, warm and bursting with desire.
Transitional by Munroe Bergdorf (Bloomsbury, out 14th October) The game-changing writer, model and social activist releases her first book this year. Bergdorf combines her own experience with theory from experts and activists to reveal how deeply ingrained transitioning is in the human experience. It’s a powerful guide to harnessing our differences and building a better society.
No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood (Bloomsbury, out 16th February) Lockwood has been hailed as the ‘poet laureate of Twitter’, and this is her first semi-autobiographical novel. A social media influencer travels the world speaking to her adoring fans, until her real life pierces the fray. Unique and poignant, it’s loved by Normal People author Sally Rooney.
Milk Fed by Melissa Broder (Bloomsbury, out 4th March) From the Women’s Prize longlisted author of The Pisces comes this imaginative story about food, sex and God (yes, all three of those). Rachel is 24 and struggling with disordered eating when she meets Miriam, a young Orthodox Jewish woman intent
upon feeding her. As they grow closer, Rachel embarks on a journey marked by mysticism, mothers, milk and honey.
The Jigsaw Man by Nadine Matheson
(HQ, out 18th February) Fans of crime fiction will adore this gruesome debut. When bodies begin washing up on the banks of the River Thames, it looks like the work of notorious serial killer Peter Olivier, the Jigsaw Man – who’s already behind bars. DI Henley needs Olivier’s help, but will he co-operate with the very detective who put him inside?
How To Heal A Broken Heart by Rosie Green
(Orion, out 11th February) When our former columnist first wrote about the end of her 26-year relationship in the pages of Red, she didn’t know how she’d come out the other side of heartbreak. But she did – and so can you, with this essential handbook to moving on and finding a happier, more fulfilled life than you ever dreamed of. In typical Green style, it’s hilarious, hopeful and full of wisdom.
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
(Viking, out 4th March) Expect blazing brilliance from the bestselling author of Homegoing; Gyasi’s latest novel is loved by Ann Patchett and Roxane Gay. Gifty’s parents escape from Ghana to Alabama, but her father and brother succumb to the hard reality of immigrant life. Years later, Gifty is desperate for answers, tracing her family’s story through continents and generations.
The Island by Libby Page (Orion, out 24th June)
For a feelgood read, look no further than the latest offering from the bestselling author of The Lido. After 20 years, Lorna returns with her daughter to the tiny Scottish island of her youth. But with hundreds of miles and a lifetime’s worth of secrets between Lorna and the island, can coming home mean starting again?
The Mother Project by Sophie Beresiner (Harpercollins, out 4th March)
In her Sunday Times column of the same name, journalist Beresiner shared her journey to motherhood after a cancer diagnosis at 30 stole her fertility. Three countries, five surrogates and lots of debt later, she finally became a mother last year. Brave, witty and honest, this part memoir, part manifesto is both personal and universal.
Untitled by Candice Carty-williams (Orion, out 2nd September)
We still don’t know much about the second novel from the author of Queenie, which won the highly coveted Book of the Year at the 2020 British Book Awards. But if Carty-williams’s comic, wise debut is anything to go by, we can’t wait to see what comes next.
Mother Mother by Annie Macmanus (Headline, out 27th May)
The debut novel by BBC Radio 1 DJ Annie Mac, Mother Mother is both a coming-of-age story and an intimate family study. Mary Mcconnell grew up longing to know more about her mother, who died when she was a baby. One day, Mary’s teenage son TJ wakes up to find his mother gone, sending the story down the challenging road of Mary’s life.
Animal by Lisa Taddeo (Bloomsbury, out 24th June) Taddeo’s first book, the non-fiction smash Three Women, was a ground-breaking exploration of female desire, and this year Taddeo will release her first, electrifying novel. Animal follows Joan, who has spent a lifetime enduring the cruel acts of men, as she tries to make sense of her past and forge the power to strike back.
Aftershocks by Nadia Owusu (Sceptre, out 4th February)
‘I have lived in disaster, and disaster has lived in me,’ writes one of the literary world’s most promising new voices, Nadia Owusu, in this astonishing memoir. After her mother left and her father died, Owusu became a woman of many homelands and identities: she grew up in several countries including Tanzania, Ethiopia, Ghana, Uganda, Italy and the UK. This is Owusu’s account of hauling herself out of the wreckage; an intimate look behind the division of today’s world.