books and essays

 
 
 

FICTION

THIS IS FINE - JUNE 2024 (CENTURY/PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE)

My second novel is about family, addiction, love and… pretending everything is fine when it’s nothing but.

The premise: it might not be the stuff of dreams, but Padma and Wallace have spent ten years building a relationship that feels . . . fine. Until Wallace gives Padma an ultimatum about starting a family she's not sure she even wants. Padma's fifteen-year-old niece Myra is reaching her own crisis point. When she falls in with the wrong crowd and her life ends up in danger, it's the final straw for her parents. Now Padma will spend the summer with her niece - in a ramshackle, ivy-clad house on the Kent clifftops - running a DIY rehab of sorts. Will this be a pressure too far for her and Wallace? And how will she spend six weeks with a niece who, thanks to her sister, she barely knows? It's the last place they want to be. But this could just be the summer that changes everything . . .

IN CASE OF EMERGENCY (CENTURY/PRH)

My debut fiction In Case of Emergency was published in 2022. It follows the humorous and poignant story of 36-year-old Bel Kumar who has a near death experience and wakes up in hospital to find her ex-boyfriend has been called as her emergency contact. It prompts a reckoning of how she’s been living her life, and reconnecting with people from her past, who were once important to her. It was described as ‘the book of the summer’ by Stylist, and ‘funny with a ton of swagger’.

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STRONGER (BLUEBIRD/PAN MACMILLAN)

Part manifesto, part memoir, Stronger is inspired by my journey to get physically strong after my husband passed away, as well as tons of interviews across size, age, race, and ability. Off the back of becoming a competing powerlifter, I wanted to lay a roadmap for how girls and women could tap into their own physical and mental strength, and not be held back by societal conditioning. Out now.

“This amazing book reminds us all that we are stronger than we know” said Stacey Solomon.

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IN SEARCH OF SILENCE, SIMON & SCHUSTER

This award-winning book is a follow-on from Chase The Rainbow, and charts my journey to India, Nepal and New Zealand, offering a sharp, funny and poetical look at recovering from grief, but also posing the questions we all should ask about our lives, around what gives you meaning.

“Raw and poetic” said Fearne Cotton.

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CHASE THE RAINBOW, SIMON & SCHUSTER 

My debut book is memoir-meets-journalism, based on life with my husband Rob who suffered with depression and addiction and took his own life in 2015. Despite the heavy subject matter, it is a love story with humour, and a non-judgemental look at taboo issues in society.

“Surprisingly funny, brave and bittersweet” said Matt Haig.