The Best of Everything
"A beautifully judged tale extolling the virtues of kindness" — Guardian
"De Waal has the power to astound, to lift and console" — Donal Ryan
It is 1972 and Paulette has her future all worked out: a life with Denton, a family, the best of everything. When it falls apart, an unexpected friendship with an elderly neighbour slowly puts her back together. A tender story of kindness, found family and the long way back from heartbreak.
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Published in the US as Sweet Pea, 3 November 2026. Available to pre-order at Barnes & Noble
Without Warning and
Only Sometimes
"Beautiful. Vivid and compelling, and so moving" — Marian Keyes
"An astonishingly good evocation of the dream and reality of migration to postwar Birmingham" — Observer
Kit grew up between three worlds, Irish, Caribbean and Brummie, in a house with no books except the Bible, a mother waiting for the end of the world and a father saving for paradise. Her memoir tells the story of that childhood with honesty, humour and not a drop of self-pity. And of how, in the end, she was saved by reading.
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The Trick to Time​
"Devastatingly emotional. De Waal's storytelling gives us the poetry and sorrow of life itself" — Financial Times
"Tender with a fierce undercurrent of tension and heartbreak" — Jane Shemilt
Mona lives alone in a seaside town, making bespoke dolls and quietly helping women who have lost a child. As her own story unfolds, from a Wexford girlhood to 1970s Birmingham, a lifetime of love and grief comes into view.​ A novel about how we survive great loss, and how time can be made to expand when we need it most.
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My Name Is Leon
"Startlingly funny. Balances the gritty with the feel good" — Observer
"Authentic and beautiful, urgent and honest" — Chris Cleave
It is 1981, a year of riots and royal weddings, and nine-year-old Leon has gone to live with Maureen, along with his perfect baby brother Jake. But Jake is white and Leon is not, and the adults are talking in low voices. A heartbreaking, funny story of brothers, belonging and finding family where you least expect it.
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Supporting Cast​
"Full of Kit's trademark humanity. I can feel my heart grow with every word" — Cathy Rentzenbrink
"A treat for her many existing fans, but new readers can very much start here" — Financial Times
The minor characters from Kit's novels step into the light: the neighbours, the passers-by, the people at the edge of the page. Short stories about the extraordinary moments in ordinary lives.
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Becoming Dinah​​
"A story with ancient resonance that's also fresh and defiantly original"
"Every bit as kinetic and audacious as her adult fiction"
Seventeen-year-old Dinah needs to leave the commune where she grew up, starting with a new name and a shaved head. Instead of hitching south alone, she ends up driving a VW campervan for a one-legged man on a mission of his own. Kit's first novel for young adults takes Moby Dick and hands the story to a teenage girl.
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Common People​​
By creating a space for the voices to be heard, Kit de Waal has edited together a life-affirming collection of memoirs for the British working class people to be seen and to see themselves’. Review by Andrew Bailes
An anthology of working-class memoir by new and established writers, crowdfunded by thousands of readers and edited by Kit. Essays and memories from Malorie Blackman, Cathy Rentzenbrink, Damian Barr, Lisa McInerney and many more.
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Six Foot Six
'Touching Story of friendship and adventure' - Book Club Hub
It is Friday morning, and twenty-one-year-old Timothy Flowers is standing on the corner of Delville Road, six feet six inches tall and waiting for the number 25 bus. Then Charlie the builder pulls up and offers him a day's work, and everything changes. A short, big-hearted story about work, trust and what a person can do when someone believes in them.​
