Get your Kelly bag and your load-bearing beams ready, this week we're talking about Diane Johnson's Le Divorce with real-life American Girl in Paris, Fiona Zublin! Isabel Walker is a young, bored film school graduate who has decamped to Paris to help her older sister Roxy, with her second pregnancy. Upon her arrival she discovers that Roxy has just been left by her French husband, Charles-Henri for another woman. As Roxy tries to negotiate French divorce courts and her estranged husbands family, Isabel slowly ingratiates herself into Paris life, becoming the mistress to Isabel’s 70 year old uncle-in-law, Edgar. When a valuable painting belonging to the Walker family gets implicated in the divorce, both families are forced to come together to find a way out.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Merry Christmas everyone! Usually this time of year, you’d be in your childhood bedroom, re-reading the books that got you through primary school. This year, a lot of us can’t go home this Christmas, but there’s still every reason to revisit the books that made life better when you were nine. It might even make life better now? Caroline and occasional co-host Ella Risbridger talk about childhood reading habits, magazines, tough but beautiful Christmases, and why the Secret Garden is the greatest love triangle of all time.We mention:Tom's Midnight GardenCharmed LifeMiss Happiness & Miss FlowerThe Secret GardenBack Homethe "My Story" booksThe Illustrated MumThe Suitcase KidThe Lottie ProjectGoing SoloDanny The Champion of The World& more! Caroline and Ella both have books for younger people coming out next year! Pick up The Secret Detectives by Ella Risbridger and All Our Hidden Gifts by Caroline O'Donoghue. See you in 2021! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Best-selling romance novelist and Yorkshire lass Milly Johnson talks to us about her biggest writing inspiration, Catherine Cookson. If you haven't read Cookson's books, you've almost certainly seen one of her many, maaaaaaany costume dramas that have been adapted for TV, probably while sick with chicken box circa 1998. We discuss Cookson's first novel, The Fifteen Streets, which tells the story of an Irish Catholic family struggling in the slums of Newcastle. We talk religion, poverty, family, starting your writing career after 40 and mysterious boating accidents Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's the best-selling fictional oral history about your favourite 70s rock band that never existed! This week, Caroline and writer/musician Tom McInnes deconstruct last year's big sun lounger surprise hit, Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. We talk about the advantages and shortcomings of the unusual format, the competing narratives of the book, the difference between literary twists and stunts. We start out a little bit cynical but ultimately, we really liked it! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Don't even act like you don't know her. This week we talk about the diva of all divas, Mariah Carey with author of The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney, Okechukwu Nzelu. Stay tuned for Tommy Mottola, that TRL appearance, and Mariah's surprisingly incisive takes on mental illness and cycles of abuse. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're back after a long break with our first Jackie Collins episode, with the one and only Jessie Burton! Jessie's debut novel The Miniaturist became a global bestseller and has since been followed up with the highly feted The Muse and The Confession, along with The Restless Girls, a novel for children. Here she talks about Jackie Collins as the patron saint of Authors Who Like Nice Things, and we talk about Jackie the product versus Jackie the person. We also discuss female authors and self awareness, Lucky Santangelo as a James Bond for women, satire, sex, parenting and much more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scenes of a Graphic Nature has been out for over a month, so Caroline and Ella are talking about it! We say this is an 'all spoiler' edition, but in practice there are actually very few spoilers and a lot of discussion of grief, working together, how it feels when a book comes out, how perceptions of Ireland have changed in less than a decade, the use of music in the novel, friendship and porn. Buy the book! https://www.waterstones.com/book/9780349009940https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07WN4QNYN/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we're talking about food, friendship and the cult favourite of Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin. Brian Eno once said that everyone who bought The Velvet Underground's first record went on to form a band, and the same can be said of Home Cooking and people who went on to write cookbooks. We talk about recipe writing, the godlike power of food writers, our dowdy twenties, tiny flats, and the uselessness of describing someone as "the new Nora Ephron". Caroline O'Donoghue has two books out, the most recent of which is Scenes of a Graphic Nature and is available in all book shops. Ella Risbridger is the author of Midnight Chicken and Set Me On Fire, as well as a forthcoming children's fiction series The Secret Detectives. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The hosts discuss their return after a break and introduce 'The Virgin Suicides', a book about people trapped in their homes. They reflect on their surprising love for the book and explore the allure of its title. They discuss their past reading preferences and idolization of Sylvia Plath. The accurate portrayal of teenage girls in the book is praised and female characters in literature are analyzed. The challenges of reaching consensus on action and the complexities of grief and obsession are explored. The author's sympathy towards women and anticipation for future podcasts are discussed.

My second book is out on audio and ebook today, here's me talking about it and doing a reading! Scenes of a Graphic Nature by Caroline O'Donoghue https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07WN4QNYN/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1Audio narration by Esther O'Moore Donohoe https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Scenes-of-a-Graphic-Nature-Audiobook/1004001509?qid=1592504228&sr=1-1&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_1&pf_rd_p=c6e316b8-14da-418d-8f91-b3cad83c5183&pf_rd_r=2B3Z57HX8WY3E9XPZPXW Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.