Emerald Fennell is an actress, director, and playwright whose screenplay for the suspenseful dark comedy Promising Young Woman won an Oscar earlier this year. A stage musical based on her reimagining of Cinderella is currently playing in London.
Giving Up the Ghost by Hilary Mantel (2003).
Hilary Mantel is one of those impossible, once-in-a-lifetime visionaries. She seems as if she's descended from William Blake, or from a medieval ascetic. Her horror writing is peerless, and there is nothing quite so harrowingly visceral as her memoir. Buy it here.
The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous by Jilly Cooper (1993).
Jilly Cooper's bucolic world of picturesque cottages, adorable dogs, and hard-core bonking cannot be beaten. Kindhearted serial shagger Lysander Hawkley is one of the best in the irresistible rogues' gallery Cooper has created in her 10-book Rutshire Chronicles series. Buy it here.
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