'Kit de Waal's best work yet'
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READER REVIEW
'Poignant and uplifting'​
READER REVIEW
'A profoundly compassionate
novel of devastating power'
Bernardine Evaristo
'A wonderful novel,
bursting with life'
Cathy Rentzenbrink
'So deeply moving: sad
and beautiful and true'
Annie Macmanus
'Kit de Waal takes an ordinary
life and renders it extraordinary'
Monica Ali
‘I defy you not to cry while reading this’
Red Magazine
'Poignant and uplifting'
‘A beautiful novel about kindness
and found family’
Good Housekeeping
‘The author of My Name is Leon knows how to tug at the heartstrings’.
The I Paper
'Devastating and uplifting' Grazia
‘Full of warmth, this is a joyous story of love and what family means to each of us’
Prima Magazine
‘There’s emotional magic in this latest novel from the ever-compassionate de Waal’
The Daily Mail
'Kit de Waal has an uncanny ability to create vivid characters with such empathy that I want to reach into the pages to hug them. I truly loved this book'
Liz Nugent
'Beautiful. De Waal has the power to astound, to lift and console, to make life with her sentences'
READER REVIEW
'Paulette is a superbly drawn character, as are those that orbit her world'
'A beautiful and important story about kindness that will break your heart, then make it sing'
Donal Ryan
READER REVIEW
'A reminder that there are more interesting loves than the ones usually celebrated in novels'
Clare Chambers
'A story that is at times gentle, surprising and full of forgiveness and redemption'
READER REVIEW
PRESS REVIEWS FOR
LATEST
Personal story in The New Statesman
with Kathryn Bromwich
in conversation with Colin Grant
With Chief Literary Critic Johanna Thomas-Corr - PDF
With Dorothy Koomson, You Tube - RUN TIME: 00:10:05
YouTube - RUN TIME 1:09:49
Watch on the Women's Prize YouTube channel - RUN TIME 3:35
With Sam Baker
RECENT ANNOUNCEMENTS
Women's Prize for Fiction 2025
The judging panel is chaired by Kit, joined by:
Novelist, journalist Diana Evans
Author, journalist and mental-health campaigner Bryony Gordon
Magazine editor, Editor-in-Chief of Glamour UK Deborah Joseph
Musician and composer Amelia Warner
​
The Women’s Prize for Fiction is the greatest celebration of female creativity in the world. 2025 celebrates the 30th anniversary of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, sponsored by Audible and Baileys.
Pictured, L-R:
Bryony Gordon, Amelia Warner, Diana Evans, Kit de Waal, Deborah Joseph
EVENTS
INTERVIEWS & CONVERSATIONS
Making My Dad's Fruitcake
with Dean O'Loughlin. For Headline Books
WATCH
In conversation with Russell Kane
In conversation with Lisa Blower
Bridport Literary Festival 2022
LISTEN
Penguin Podcast, Kit de Waal with Katy Brand (32 min)
Literary Salon with Damian Barr RUN TIME: 00:44:00 min)
How to Fail with Elizabeth Day RUN TIME: 00:58:00
READ
The Times Literary Supplement Twenty Questions
The Aesthetic Memoir with Lily Dunn
The Class Work Project with Shan Stephens
QUICK, ONLINE
READS
The New Statesman
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Article: My Irish grandmother...
The Irish Times
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Books Ireland Magazine
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A short story resistance
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COLLABORATIONS
& OTHER WORK
​
Jean Humphreys Writer in Residence at the University of Leicester
Adjunct Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Limerick
Advisory Board Member, Dead Ink Books
Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
Ambassador of The Film & TV Charity
Ambassador of Listening Books
Member of The Society of Authors
Member of the The Black Writers' Guild
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Ambassador of Wellbeing in the Arts
​​
Patron of The Bridport Prize
​
Trustee of The Reading Agency
Patron of Prisoners Abroad
Patron of Met Film School
Patron of Create Central
