The List of Suspicious Things

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How did Catherine Neman write a book about dying that is so luminously alive? Earthy, funny, and terrifyingly honest - this is a book with heart and guts and all the other goopy gravt we need to stay among the living. A radical delight. RUFI THORPE Miller revealed how she adapted her famed stage play, “Prima Facie", which starred Jodie Comer as a working class barrister in her West End debut. Interestingly, I’ve always said I’d be an author, since childhood. I feel as though I had an inner knowing about where I was meant to be and what I was meant to be doing. My biggest lesson has been to really strip away all the ‘shoulds’ and the things that society expects of you, for example “you should focus on your career”; “you need to make money”. Catherine Newman sees the heartbreak and comedy of life with wisdom and unflinching compassion. The way she finds the extraordinary in the everyday is nothing short of poetry. She's a writer's writer-and a human's human. KATHERINE CENTER , New York Times bestselling author Hutchinson Heinemann ran its Fiction 2024 showcase on the evening of Wednesday 1st November with authors including Flora Carr, Jennie Godfrey, Suzie Miller, Chigozie Obioma and Vanessa Walters discussing their forthcoming novels.

Both parents are really proud that it’s about Yorkshire, because it’s not necessarily a place that is reflected in literature in abundance.Inspiration is so important when we decide to change direction. Do you have a resource that you’d recommend to others? Butterfield said: “I don’t buy many books anymore, I’m not really supposed to, but I only do it when I fall in love with something extraordinary and there are actually novelists here who I’ve naughtily bought. And The List of Suspicious Things is exactly that, an extraordinary novel.

Beautiful and emotional ... heartbreakingly sad, but also full of humour and ultimately about living and love. I will recommend this to everyone. PRIMA Gloriously funny, utterly heartbreaking, and really just brilliant, We All Want Impossible Things is one of the best novels on friendship I've ever read. I loved it. AJ PEARCE, author of DEAR MRS BIRD I’m making near-constant decisions, and, for me, this is a clear example of everyday leadership. Nothing has been prescribed to me in terms of how to do what I’m doing; I just have to make my way.You know when you just know a book is going to be huge, that a talented new author has burst on the scene?? Well, here we have it. First of all, the characterisation is exemplary. I love Miv and she’s an unforgettable character and yes, you could say she’s obsessive but she’s only looking for distraction from difficulties at home. Miv has good instincts even if she doesn’t entirely understand what she sees which is certainly true at the start when her naivety is clear to see but not at the end. Her friendships are a thing of beauty especially with the lovely Sharon, the “Terrible Twosome” and their friendship is wonderful. It isn’t all plain sailing by any stretch as they witness some cruelty and meanness that beggars belief but sadly is all too believable. All the characters spring to life, even the ones you’d rather didn’t. Jo Nadin is Jennie’s PhD supervisor, a Senior Lecturer in the University’s English Department and an author of several successful books. She said: “I’m thrilled for Jennie, but not at all surprised. Her writing is touching, funny and insightful. I can’t wait to see it in print.” You’re now hugely successful and I learned a lot from that. I remember our conversation about the importance of holding your nerve and I use this mantra even now. ‘Hold your nerve’, or ‘show up’ are probably my favourite mantras in life.

And after her PhD? Perhaps a memoir, perhaps another novel, but her die is cast; and they aren’t showing a return to HR. Publishers are a jaded lot – when we’ve read and seen everything, when we’re reading submissions we’re reading it with the assumption that we’re going to turn it down because usually that is the case, but Jenny had me from the very first line: ‘It would be easy to say it that it all started with the murders but actually it began when Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister’.” Tragically funny, with moments of clarity and wisdom, Newman writes loss and laughter in equally brilliant amounts. BONNIE GARMUS, author of LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY I have no deadlines or commitments to produce anything and yet I still show up for work every single day. Strictly speaking, I don’t get paid because that comes when I get my book deal. But I show up to do my work as a writer. I make lots of decisions in terms of what I need to do. That might be writing, but more often it’s learning. Podcasts, films, reading. And even dog -walking. It’s during these outdoor spells that everything percolates, and I have my ideas and inspiration. Also, I will be forever grateful for Elizabeth Day’s work on failing. Her book, ‘How To Fail’ has been my constant companion in this and is a great inspiration.I have heard nothing but good things about [ We All Want Impossible Things] and they were all quite right - it's so warm and funny and full of great observations ... it looks set for rip-roaring success, deservedly so! CLARE CHAMBERS, author of SMALL PLEASURES Nora-Ephron-style wit...comforting, so funny, moving... one of my favourite books ever' MARIAN KEYES So, Miv and Sharon decide to make a list: a list of all the suspicious people and things down their street. People they know. People they don't. This is a story about holding on, the power of creating memories and, ultimately, letting go. Tissues at the ready. THE HANDBOOK Jennie: I was in a conversation with Hannah when my first ever full manuscript request came through. It was great to be able to share it with someone who totally ‘got’ what that meant. It was even more helpful to have her mop up my tears when I got the subsequent rejection.