Dearest reader...

because reading is FUN-damental

I’ve loved reading for a long time. I remember being frustrated as a four-year-old in my unruly reception class, that I had been given a book called ‘Look’, which just had the word look on each page, whilst increasing amount of animals got squashed into a car. I remember thinking even then, that it was a bit lacking in forward narrative. Also, I’ve always been a fast reader. My family are fast readers - is this genetic? Someone should look into it, it effects men too, so perhaps they’ll give some funding to it. I just find it easy to glide along with a book, once I’m into it, I can whizz through for a good few hours and not really notice the world going by.¹

omgee, this is the actual book, thank you the internet, sometimes you’re ok.

This is why I did an English Literature degree, this is why I do a podcast about books with Sara Pascoe, and when I got an email last year asking me if I would like to judge the 2026 Women’s Prize for Fiction, this is why I agreed. (Sorry, so far, so smug.)

The year before, thanks to the podcast, I'd read around 50 books - it had been hard, of course, I had to read A LOT, I was never without a book but I enjoyed it, and of course I felt pretty pleased that after many years of becoming a full-time scroller², I had returned back to my first love - books. So, yeah sure, what’s a few more I thought? Sounding exactly like the overconfident mother-of-one about to be royally shat on by dealing with a toddler and a newborn.

But now, just putting down my phone wouldn’t cut it, I had to be reading all the time. I would finish one book, take a moment to have a sigh and sip my tea and then start the next one. I got into audiobooks, previously something I’ve never been able to do - and instead of watching my favourite piece of trash on Netflix whilst at the gym, I paused the cross trainer to take in what I had just heard, I lifted weights whilst characters made me cry. I stopped washing up and found jumpers to hand wash just so I could finish a chapter.³

Have I watched Heated Rivalry yet? No. Did I manage to watch any films this year apart from Home Alone (1 through to 6, yes there’s 6 of them, no you really don’t need to watch them all). You can not swallow every cultural cocktail. This year I made my choice and my tipple was books.⁴

Hear me out… a girlband, but they just read books at you in an arena setting?

Just a few weeks ago the Women’s Prize for Fiction Longlist was announced, and on 22nd April, the shortlist of the six final books will be announced, before the winner is chosen in June. I have now read over 70 books (alongside my other amazing judges), to get to this point. This is definitely not a competitive reading post - I feel like someone who’s jumped out of 70 planes so you don’t have to - let me tell you what this much reading had led me to realise.

1.) Firstly, reading is great. You know it, I know it, but by god when you know it and you pick up the book, that’s a sweet sweet hang out point. It’s SO good. You feel SO much better when you’re doing it. We all know the phone makes us feel awful, (I won’t share my screen time but do not be afeared I did not give up Instagram) but I never put a book down and felt like I’d eaten too many sweets at the pick’n’mix, I never felt sick of humanity, I felt enthralled by it - even with the books I didn’t love.

2.) It’s boring but true, the more I read, the easier it got. The more I made myself read on the tube and the bus, the more they became places I MUST read, and then it became weird to pick up my phone in those places. The only other time I’ve felt this strongly about doing something in a specific place is when I tried to stop smoking whilst having a break at my crap temp jobs in my 20s which felt like my arms should have fallen off, it was so unusual. Having that feeling but about reading was nice.

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3.) A book you don’t like will stall you - don’t linger there too long. If you’re not getting on with it, put it down - you can! Judges need to finish things, but you don’t! The amount of times my reading slowed to a dangerous pace, was when I had one I wasn’t getting on with. I didn’t want to pick it up, so I turned back to the phone, to emails, to anything but that book - it’s ok to leave a book, come back to it, or just admit to yourself, despite what everyone else thinks - you hate these people.

4.) All books are valid. What I mean is, of course, I read books I liked more than others, but once you start reading A LOT of books, you realise they’re like people, they all have their flaws and quirks, and mostly it’s really nice to spend time with them for a bit. I read genres I haven’t read since I was a teenager. I picked up books that terrified me. I read books with bad covers that turned out to be amazing. It felt like going to a party and getting to talk to everyone - but better than that because I didn’t have to actually talk to anyone.

5.) Prizes are amazing. If you are genuinely stuck in a reading rut, overwhelmed by how many books are out there, take a look at the 2026 Longlist. I can honestly tell you, everyone of those books is worth your time. You’ll like some more than others, of course, but we spent a year truffling these sixteen books out so you could enjoy them. There are debuts there, small presses, people who’ve written lots of books, people who you’ve never heard of, word of mouth successes… the joy and privilege of this process is being able to shout about these amazing authors that otherwise in this insane world might get missed.

My family for the past year

I don’t quite know what I’ll do when the reading is over. I really (really) hope I don’t slow down too much, but enough to start having a piece of cake between books rather than just a breath, sure. Oh yeah, I can watch Heated Rivalry finally… and then read the books, right?

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1. Oh save the research, in writing this, I’ve just realised it’s adhd that makes me a fast reader, I’m hyper-focusing and not drinking for three hours whilst lost in a book. I know what you’re thinking, can you remember the plots though - and let me tell you - no, I can’t. But I have a great time while I’m there. (I think.)

2. My preferred scrollerball playing position, is standing next to the radiator pretending I’m doing work whilst being on Instagram, but telling the kids I need to reply to an email - what’s yours?

3. Anyone else hand-washing things so they don’t have to do work? I recently admitted this to a friend and they looked really weirded out, like I was sneakily a trad-wife, but I think I just really like taking care of cashmere. IS THAT SO WRONG SALLY?

4. But you managed to watch every episode of Season 4 of Bridgerton? Yes, yes I did. I consider that the same as catching up on Austen, actually. And is my IG now just interviews with the actor who plays Benedict? Yes, yes it is actually. Did I enjoy the Globe sharing his performance in Julius Caesar? Yep, that was very entertaining too. What about the interviews with him and Yerin? Also, very lovely. What about when he speaks French and seems shy and English but he’s speaking French? Yep, all good, all very solid book reading work, actually. WHO IS THE NEW WHISTLEDOWN? Brinsley? Hyacinth? Should this be a separate post, yep seems so.