I can't remember the last time I read a novel with such unbridled enthusiasm. Amazing Grace Adams is a raw, uproariously hilarious portrait of parenthood, love, and family; it's also a profound examination of the way language can both save us and fail us when we need it the most. I'd walk across London on the hottest day of the year with Fran Littlewood-hell, I'd walk anywhere with her. I'm begging you: read this book Grant Ginder, author of The People We Hate at the Wedding

Amazing Grace Adams tells the story of a life, a marriage, a family, set against a single north-London day. A rollercoaster ride of redemption and discovery, it's a powerful celebration of womanhood. I LOVED Grace Adams! With all my heart! As a woman of a certain age she was so relatable. She could have been me. I could have been her. She was funny and frank, forthright and feisty. But as the story unfolds and her layers are shed you realise that there is so, so much more to this remarkable woman. Her rivers run deep and I felt my heart breaking for her as the circumstances of her life are slowly revealed. Hugely enjoyable. Compelling, funny and poignant. I devoured it Paula Hawkins, bestselling author of The Girl on the Train Littlewood, a mother of three teenage daughters, drew on her relationship to inform Grace’s sometimes contentious, always rewarding relationship with Lotte.A redemptive story of womanhood, motherhood and marriage. You won't forget Grace Adams in a hurry' CULTUREFLY The writing in “Amazing Grace Adams” is truly amazing, with powerful, multi-sensory descriptions of everything from blisters to childbirth. For instance, here’s how the eponymous protagonist feels as she trudges for miles through London in the heat of a summer afternoon: “she is being seared across her scalp, along her shoulders, down the front of her newly liver-spotted chest. The impression is she is being cooked alive.” That prose should ‘look like water, taste like gin’. This is from Andrew Motion, former poet laureate, who taught me for part of my MA in creative writing at Royal Holloway. He was all about weeding out the overwriting, which I very much needed since at the time I was a ‘why use one metaphor/ simile when you can use ten’ kind of writer. Also! I love doing descriptions, everyone is definitely gonna want to read ALL these descriptions. I was gripped from the start and finished it on holiday, ignoring my friends (and surrounding kangaroos!) because I couldn’t bear to put it down until I got to the end. And then, of course, I was sad it was over. However, the story is reminiscent of “Where’d You Go, Bernadette?” (Maria Semple) so at least that comparison is accurate.

For an audiobook, Wandering Souls by Cecile Pin, narrated by Aoife Hinds, Ioanna Kimbook, and Ainsleigh Barber. It’s a story about family and identity, belonging, resilience and love. A fictional narrative that springs from the author’s mother’s experience as a Vietnamese boat person, it’s impossible to describe without diminishing it. So I’ll only say, the book manages to be both intimate and epic, personal and political, and I’m in awe of it.

It can be a real Renaissance time. This midlife time has so many challenges in some ways, set against a culture that prizes beauty and youth. But there are real positives. There can be a return to the authentic self. The pre-adolescent self,” she says. “I know women who are starting new ventures, doing new things.”