Deborah Frances-White: My Five Favourite Books

“Her story is not one of great success, her story is one of great effort, and joy in that effort, and all of the wonderful funny things that happen to you along the way and the people you meet. It’s a celebration of a life well lived, doing the thing you want to do and not allowing success to be your metric – seeing that life isn’t success.”

“I remember finishing it in Holland Park Tube station, because I got off the Tube., and I was so compelled, I couldn’t leave without finishing it. I sat down on a bench in a quiet part of the station, finished it and wept, on my own. I was so broken by this book but I was like “Well, this book has ruined my life.”

“This was picked for me by somebody else, and I had to read it so I could discuss it. And I was like, “Where has Toni Morrison been all my life? This is absolutely the best book I’ve ever read.” It’s beyond anything else I’ve ever read. If you have not read any Toni Morrison, I am about to change your life. And I want you to tweet me “@DeborahFW Thank you. You’ve changed my life…”

“If you want to get a greater understanding of Windrush through fiction, this is a wonderful way to do it. Stella is such an intersectional feminist, there are all sorts of wonderful things explored. Coming through fiction and being caught up in a story is a great way sometimes to explore things that otherwise we might find very traumatic to deal with.”

“It’s about a young woman in a relationship with a man who just disappears, and completely stops contacting her. At the same time, her father is losing his memory because of Alzheimer’s. I think these are very important and relatable 21st century topics. In some ways Dolly is a modern day Jane Austen, because she writes about dating and manners. I’m sure ghosting has existed for centuries, just not in the digital sense.”