Last night at the 2025 Booker Prize Ceremony ♥️ what a privilege to be in a room with such incredible talent, celebrating David Szalay's 'Flesh' alongside all the incredible shortlistees. And extra special to be celebrating as part of the growing gang of @merkybooks New Writers' Prize Winners 🏆✨️
Thank you for having us @thebookerprizes ✨️
Officially a Penguin paperback girlie 🐧📚👸🏽✨️🫧🤍
Swipe for some lovely, generous words about the novel and a gorgeous product shot by @willfahyphoto . Thanks always to @merkybooks@greeneheaton and everyone who has read and reviewed the novel so far. It's been so special spotting the paperback in bookshops this week, and means SO much to see a Penguin Paperback (I used to inhale these as a kid!) with South Asian rep on the cover 🥹🤍 Can't wait to celebrate with some of you next week at @bookbaruk ✨️🫧🥂
A delicious quick trip up to sunny, leafy Shropshire yesterday evening. Was guest speaker at one of Arvon's Residential Writing Weeks and spent a wonderful evening speaking to a group of budding writers about my debut novel and its journey to publication 🍃🌷✨️thank you for having me @arvon__ 💙
Last week I ran a creative writing workshop at @anawim_bcw as part of their Words Rising programme with @literacy_trust 💛
Words Rising supports women who have experienced domestic abuse, violence, or the criminal justice system, using creative writing as a tool for confidence, empowerment and healing. It was a very special afternoon, made even brighter by having the absolute babe that is @rebeccajames_21 with me 💛☀️
An evening with the Free Books fam at the gorgeous @aethoslondon penthouse 💌
@freebookscampaign are doing some truly incredible things this year, and I’m so excited to be part of their creative board. Go show them some love 🩷
📸 @stfndocs
I'm teaching a workshop on 'writing the family' next month at the @writerscentre
🌷 Friday 22nd May
🌷 2-4pm
🌷 Dragon Hall, Norwich
We'll explore how to write about family in contemporary fiction through guided exercises, an exploration of theory, and close analysis of some of my favourite texts.
You'll learn:
• How to create compelling & authentic characters within a family novel
• How to choose the right perspective for your story
• How complex family dynamics can be used to drive plot
The link to book a place is in my bio 🌷 see you there x
BOOKS WE SHOULD BE TALKING ABOUT 📚✨
With our very talented board member, @ilona.bannister , away for a few months promoting her brand-new book Five, Rebecca is stepping in to host our Books We Should Be Talking About segment.
To kick things off, we’re joined by our book club bestie, Jyoti Patel—author of The Things That We Lost—who shares her pick for a book she thinks deserves all the attention 😍
Jyoti chose A Flat Place by Noreen Masud, a title she’s incredibly passionate about—and one that’s instantly shot to the top of our TBR pile!
A huge thank you to Jyoti for taking the time to film this with us. We absolutely love her support for the book club, and we hope you enjoy the video as much as we did.
Let us know in the comments: what books do you think we should be talking about? And if you’ve read A Flat Place, we’d love to hear your thoughts too.
@jyotisbooks@noreen_masud@merkybooks@womensprize@penguinukbooks
Had the best evening at the National Literacy Trust @literacy_trust gala dinner last night (and crutch-free, at last 🤸🏽♀️) It meant a lot to be invited as a guest author and to see up close the incredible impact of their work to raise literacy levels amongst kids & adults 🎊
Also got to spend the night with the Social Impact Team at @penguinrandomhouse who are just the BEST fun 🥳 Was truly in awe of the powerful & important work they're doing, esp their 'Lit in Colour' and 'Libraries for Primaries' campaigns. Go show them some love 🩷
“This isn’t a dress rehearsal - you only get one go.”
From following her gut to taking risks, even when it’s scary or unconventional, @jyotisbooks reminds us that life is about experiences - trying, learning, and backing yourself. Even a small step toward what truly makes you happy can spark massive transformation. Start 2026 inspired to take your own brave steps! 😍
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