A hilarious and heartfelt year following one woman and her puppy – from chaos and tears to healing and new beginnings. It’s a love story, but not as you know it.

Raising a puppy is simple: feed them, walk them, love them. Right? Wrong.

Armed with Pinterest-perfect plans and firm ideas about training, Sophia brings Dennis – a scruffy and defiant Parson terrier – into her life. But just as the puppy pads hit the floor, the rest of her world falls apart.

Suddenly single and quietly unravelling, Sophia finds herself solo parenting a tiny, gleeful agent of chaos who devours foam earplugs, destroys her shoes, and has an alarming taste for spiders. He’s also the only thing keeping her afloat.

As the months roll by in a haze of dodgy first dates, sleepless nights and meltdowns in the park, Sophia begins to make sense of it all: the grief of a life that didn’t go to plan, the weirdness of being single in your late thirties, and the surprising ways love shows up when you least expect it.

By the end of their first year together, Dennis hasn’t just wrecked the furniture – he’s quietly rebuilt her life.

For anyone who’s ever been through shattering heartbreak, this is a story of quiet resilience, unpredictable joy, and the quiet wonder of a small body curled beside you when it matters most.

‘Funny, wise, revelatory – a revolution wrapped in a love story’ – Natasha Lunn, author of Conversations on Love

‘Hopeful, funny, sexy – a book I’m going to be sharing with every woman I know’ – Daisy Buchanan, author of Careering

Can you be happy without a partnership at the centre of your life?

As Marianne Power turns forty, she wonders why marriage and kids remain elusive for her. However, is this what she even wants, or just what society deems she should want? At first, she leans into the alternatives – self-love, self-marriage, sisterhood – but is she avoiding confronting her fears about commitment, relationships and sex?

Marianne sets off on a journey determined to answer this question: can you have a life full of love without marriage and kids?

From tantra to Skype sex, from polyamory to sologamy, Marianne’s quest takes her to some hilarious, scary and moving places – and she discovers that maybe, in these chaotic times, loving thy neighbour is more important than romantic ideals.

Honest, intimate and inspiring, Love Me! is about the freedom to envision the life you want, and finding the courage to choose it.

Can you be happy without a partnership at the centre of your life?

Society still sets the gold standard for successful living as a marriage and kids. As Marianne Power turns forty, she wonders why this is still so elusive for her and whether, in fact, this is what she even wants, or just what she feels like she should want. At first, she tries to lean into the alternatives – self-love, self-marriage, sisterhood – but is she avoiding confronting her fears about commitment, relationships and sex?

Determined to find out for sure, Marianne sets off on a journey to answer the question: can you have a life full of love without marriage and kids? From tantra to Skype sex, from polyamory to sologamy, Marianne’s quest takes her to some hilarious, scary and moving places – and she discovers that maybe, in these chaotic times, loving thy neighbour is more important than romantic ideals.

Honest, intimate and inspiring, Love Me! is about the freedom to envision the life you want, and finding the courage to choose it.

Georgie Codd never had a dad. And she didn’t think that would ever change – until a stranger’s practical joke made her wonder if she could find one. So began her quest for a father figure, placing ‘dadverts’ in newspapers, magazines and corners of the internet she thought the fatherly might frequent.

Along with the conversations, meetings and the twists and turns of seeking family relationships with strangers comes a curious look at the societal, cultural and biological functions of fatherhood. What makes someone decide to have or not have a child? What is the experience for single parents, for queer communities, for people rejected by their birth family – or for those who do the rejecting? And why were so many ‘dads’ angling for something other than parenthood?

By turns brilliant and bonkers, hilarious and poignant, this is an unexpected story of the strange, intimate things we mean when we talk about family.

Is it possible that life without romantic love isn’t so bad?

When poet Amy Key was growing up, she looked forward to a life shaped by romance, fuelled by desire, longing and the conventional markers of success that come when you share a life with another person. But that didn’t happen for her. Now in her forties, she sets out to explore the realities of a life lived in the absence of romantic love.

Using Joni Mitchell’s seminal album Blue – which shaped Key’s expectations of love – as an anchor, Arrangements in Blue elegantly honours a life lived completely by, and for, oneself.
Building a home, travelling alone, choosing whether to be a mother, recognising her own milestones, learning the limits of self-care and the expansive potential of self-friendship, Key uncovers the many forms of connection and care that often go unnoticed.

With profound candour and intimacy, Arrangements in Blue explores the painful feelings we are usually too ashamed to discuss: loneliness, envy, grief and failure.

The result is a book which inspires us to live and love more honestly.

**A SUNDAY TIMES AND INDEPENDENT BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023***

‘Marks an important shift in ideas about intimacy’ OBSERVER

‘Fascinating. A wise and compassionate book full of insight and understanding that would help anyone experiencing grief, or those surrounding them’ Cathy Rentzenbrink

‘A wonderfully important and transforming book – lucid, consoling and wise’ William Boyd

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Grief Works is a compassionate guide that will inform and engage anyone who is grieving, from the ‘expected’ death of a parent to the sudden unexpected death of a small child, and provide clear advice for those seeking to comfort the bereaved.

Julia Samuel guides you gently through her eight practical pillars of strength – that include the power of saying ‘no’ to the structure and building of good new habits – to support you and help you to gradually rebuild your life in the face of grief:

With personal real-life stories of loss, and brilliantly accessible and practical advice, Grief Works will be passed down through generations as the definitive guide for anyone who has lost a loved one, and will revolutionise the way we talk about life, loss and death.