The fluidity of adolescence and reflections on life and success with Meg Rosoff

Meg Rosoff spent 15 years working in advertising before writing her first novel. That book, How I Live Now, has since sold over one million copies in 36 territories, won prestigious awards and been adapted into a film. Her subsequent novels have been awarded or shortlisted for multiple awards including the Carnegie Medal. Although she was born in Boston, our guest now lives in London with her husband, daughter and dogs.

Interview starts at 15 minutes.

Caitlin recommends

2 brilliant fiction podcasts: Next Stop and Little Did I Know

For fans of rom-coms and uplifting contemporary storytelling. 

Michelle recommends

Matt Haig's fiction. Beautiful magical realism exploring what it means to be human.

Books mentioned: How to Stop Time, The Dead Fathers Club, The Radleys, The Midnight Library

In this interview, we chat about

• The difficulty with trying to explain exactly what happens in The Great Godden (or any character-driven novel)
• Exploring conventional beauty, the commodity of beauty, and challenging commonly held beliefs
• Meg’s struggle writing The Great Godden and her decision to keep the narrator unidentified
• The act of discovery involved in writing a novel and trusting where the characters want to go
• Meg’s plans for another novel exploring a pivotal summer, set during a New York internship and featuring an intense friendship that goes wrong
• The arrival of the AIDS epidemic while Meg was living in New York in the 1980s
• How our society will change (and potentially flourish) after Covid
• The notion of adolescence and how it re-appears in our lives
• Why Meg believes self-doubt is “unbelievably important” to the creative process
• Meg’s experience of winning the second richest literary prize in the world: feeling unworthy, working harder to prove she was indeed worthy of the prize, and re-evaluating ‘success’
• The person Meg regards as the best writer in the world
• Meg’s advice to her younger self (and us all)

Books and other things mentioned

• Downton Abbey
• You’re Wrong About Podcast - Princess Diana series
• Pride (film)
• This Podcast Will Kill You Podcast - Hit Me With Your Best (Polio) Shot
• Wolf Erlbruch
• The Sword in the Stone by TH White

Learn more and get in touch with Meg at her website  megrosoff.co.uk.

Follow us on Instagram @betterwordspod

Caitlin and Michelle both received copies of The Great Godden from Bloomsbury Publishing.