London Calling

This one is epic, get ready to scroll.

Tally ho!

I’m writing from London, where I’m spending a week with my wonderful and stylish UK publishers, running hither and yon. Here are the highlights!

For some reason, it was very important to my child that I bring this homemade Pokemon card to London with me, so that when I get back, it will be coming from London. An import!

This is David and his very perfect puppy, Belle. All podcast interviews should take place with perfect puppies in the room. David owns Goldsboro Books, is a literary agent, has a podcast, and is married to a writer, and so we could have talked for 300 hours. We did not steal Belle, though I very much wanted to.

The adorable Filipa, a bookseller at Waterstones Trafalger Square, had been to Books Are Magic! Booksellers are the greatest.

Why have one adorable, fun-loving publicist when you could have two adorable, fun-loving publicists? Gaby and Ellie have been taking excellent care of me in London, including throwing me a very fancy dinner with the coolest British journalists. Oh, I said fancy dinner, do you want to see the food? Okay!

This is crab pasta served in a crab, in case you were wondering, and not even the most delicious item served. (If you find yourself in London, go eat at Norma, absolutely wonderful, even if you don’t happen to find yourself surrounded by beautiful, smart British women who are complimenting your work, though I will say that it’s a pretty great situation, should you be able to arrange it.)

This is Hazel, who has owned Village Books in Dulwich for 25 years, though the bookstore has been in operation since 1925. Hazel baked us a lemon cake and made us tea. In related news, I would hereby like to announce that I am abandoning Brooklyn and Books Are Magic and am moving to Dulwich. There’s a cheese shop next door.

Did I take a picture of Hazel’s lemon cake? I did not. But I DID take a picture of this neighborhood dog hall of fame and then immediately post it in the Books Are Magic slack channel.

Daunt’s, the mecca, the home to the nicest booksellers and the best mini-totes in town.

You know who has a teensy Daunt’s tote and is the chicest woman in the world? Katie Kitamura. And now also me.

Gaby, Ellie and I ran around town to a thousand bookstores—this Waterstones, that Waterstones, Halyards, Daunt’s. One thing that I am delighted to report from the Ego Check Division is that no matter how many books one sells, there will always be disinterested young booksellers with floppy hair and well-worn sweaters who absolutely could not care less about you. I mean me. I mean one. I won’t say which bookstore. Keepin’ it humble in ‘22!

Doing my best Bridget Jones, walking over a bridge. You know what’s nice about all these bridges? They’re so short! And flat! Walking over the Brooklyn Bridge is very pretty but also feels like a cardiovascular workout, which is not always what I’m looking for. These London bridges are just like— boop! You’re there.

The first stop this morning was my friend Fleur’s shop, Sevenoaks, in Kent, and as you can see, we had just a miserable time. Fleur is the greatest for 1000 reasons, some of which you will see below. I would like to post the video of the box in Sevenoak’s toilet that plays birdsong, but I can’t, so you’ll have to click over to my Instagram, where I will put it in my stories.

How was your 2020? Did you make a tiny model of your workplace out of paper? No? then Grace, one of Sevenoaks’ wonderful booksellers, is vastly superior to you, apologies.

This is Fleur’s actual car. It’s a 1966 Morris Miner 1000, and it’s as fun to drive around in as you think. When Fleur offered to drive us back to the train station, she didn’t mention the fact that her car was this literal dream machine, can you imagine? She let us think it was a normal car! I would dangle my 1966 Morris Miner! I would use it for bribes, large and small!

She does enjoy it, clearly. Look at that steering wheel! Have you ever seen a better one? Also, let’s just take a moment to appreciate Fleur’s jumpsuit.

But lest you think this is just a Fleur Fan Newsletter, no! Let me introduce you to Chrissy, the owner of BookBar, a one-year-old bookshop in Islington. It’s such a warm, inclusive space, and I immediately understood why all the other booksellers smiled and said they loved it, when I gave them my whole list of stops.

So far, I’ve bought 16 books. Oops! Here’s my haul thus far. No one tell my children, they will be very excited about the Pokemon and the Corpse Talk. (If you have weird kids who are into history, the Corpse Talk books are great!)

After a brief rest at the hotel, it was time for a bookseller dinner, and let me just say, I was not prepared.

Please meet my new best mates, Helen, Carrie, Sue (top), and Emma. We have private jokes and are writing a mystery novel together. They’ve done 500 virtual events together over the pandemic. They are incredible. Do you think it’s possible that I drank too much? It is.

This morning, after a quick stop at Michael Joseph HQ to sign some books, I did a turn at the Tate Modern and am now ready to go home. This Time Tomorrow is out June 9 in the UK, and you can get a copy from any independent bookstore, any Waterstones, anywhere you like. My suitcase is full of candy. Thank you to Gaby, my indefatigable publicist, for making sure I got everywhere on time, and always had tea and something to eat. Fingers crossed for easy travels home.

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What I’m Reading

This week, I finished Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, which I loved with my entire heart. One part The Interestings, one part Kavalier and Clay, one hundred parts Gabrielle Zevin’s perfect prose, huge heart, video games, humor, love, YES. It’s so fucking good. These sentences are incoherent because I haven’t slept all week but you get the picture.

Casey McQuiston’s I Kissed Shara Wheeler. Impeccable, of course. Teenagers, romance, the illusion of other people’s perfection. I love it.

Sloane Crosley’s Cult Classic. Sloane is hilarious. I listened to the audiobook and texted her every time she made me laugh until I was like, Emma, this is aggressive, and stopped. Then I only thought about texting her every time she made me laugh. Cults! Downtown NYC! Lost loves! A+.