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Reading lists

Must-read books by women, as chosen by our readers

The Terrible

**WINNER of the 2019 PEN Ackerley Prize** 
 
'A major literary talent . . . speaks about the power and powerlessness that young women are subject to in a wholly fresh, clear-eyed way . . . you'll find it hard to come away from The Terrible without a stab of recognition in your chest' Stylist 
 
'You may not run away from the thing that you are 
because it comes and comes and comes as sure as you breathe.' 
 
This is the story of Yrsa Daley-Ward, and all the things that happened - 'even the Terrible Things (and God, there were Terrible Things)'. It's about her childhood in the north-west of England with her beautiful, careworn mother and her little brother who sees things written in the stars. 
 
It's also about growing up and discovering the power and fear of sexuality, about pitch grey days of pills and powder: going under, losing yourself, and finding your voice. 
 
 'Yrsa's work is like holding the truth in your hands' Florence Welch

Elegant, daring, profound - confirms her abundant talent as a writer

Beautiful and harrowing . . . Daley-Ward writes with disarming honesty

A major literary talent . . . speaks about the power and powerlessness that young women are subject to in a wholly fresh, clear-eyed way . . . you'll find it hard to come away from The Terrible without a stab of recognition in your chest

Daley-Ward explores the connection between raw emotion and the mechanics of language with more wildness and tenacity than ever

A rare combination of literary brilliance, originality of voice and a narrative that commands you to keep going until you've reached the last page . . . her prose is invigorating, razor-sharp and moves at the speed of light . . . Yrsa Daley-Ward is an explosive new talent and this book should not be missed

The Terrible's raw yet lilting prose draws the reader in at once. Unpredictable shifts in form and structure - from prose to poetry and script - are refreshingly disorientating. This is both a defiant book and a defiantly inventive one.

Daley-Ward is a stylish writer, as well as an unusual voice . . . she has a knack for distilling wild emotions into precise imagery, for selecting insightful impressions.

Daley-Ward's beautiful prose wrapped its hands around my neck - I found myself doing stupid things like walking through New York at rush hour with my nose buried in her book.

The Terrible is a lyrical piece of writing that oscillates between prose and poetry . . . Daley-Ward's lines land like dandelion spores, these weightless things that are somehow simultaneously profound

Daley-Ward has cooked a broth of dizzying emotions and touching moments down to a nuanced and taut account . . . there are so many flourishes of imagination and pathos here, that it's impossible not to get caught up in the torrential pace of the narrative . . .the result is one of the year's genuine must reads

Daley-Ward combines beautifully crafted and deeply personal verse with impressive prose, bending the form of the memoir into her own genre

Daley-Ward is twenty-nine years old, but the events of her life more than justify the publication of this unflinching chronicle.

'You may not run away from the thing that you are 
because it comes and comes and comes as sure as you breathe.' 
 
This is the story of Yrsa Daley-Ward, and all the things that happened - 'even the Terrible Things (and God, there were Terrible Things)'. It's about her childhood in the north-west of England with her beautiful, careworn mother Marcia, Linford (the man formerly known as Dad, 'half-fun, half-frightening') and her little brother Roo, who sees things written in the stars. It's about growing up and discovering the power and fear of her own sexuality, of pitch grey days of pills and powder and encounters. It's about damage and pain, but also joy. Told with raw intensity, shocking honesty and the poetry of the darkest of fairy tales, The Terrible is a memoir of going under, losing yourself, and finding your voice.

bone

'Honest, unflinching and unforgettable... one of Britain's best writers' Stormzy 
 
'You will come away bruised. 
You will come away bruised 
but this will give you poetry.' 
 
Raw and stark, the poems in Yrsa Daley-Ward's breakthrough collection strip down her reflections on the heart, life, the inner self, coming of age, faith and loss to their essence. They resonate to the core of experience. 
 
'Yrsa's work is like holding the truth in your hands. A glorious living thing' Florence Welch 
 
'yrsa daley-ward's 'bone' is a symphony of breaking and mending. an expert storyteller. of the rarest. and purest kind - daley-ward is uncannily attentive and in tune to the things beneath life. beneath the skin. beneath the weather of the everyday.' nayyirah waheed. author of salt. and nejma

Honest, unflinching and unforgettable . . . one of Britain's best writers

an expert storyteller. of the rarest. and purest kind--daley-ward is uncannily attentive and in tune to the things beneath life. beneath the skin. beneath the weather of the everyday.

Yrsa's work is like holding the truth in your hands. It sweats and breathes before you. 
A glorious living thing

You may think poetry is not for you, but please push yourself a little, go out of your comfort zone and buy bone by Yrsa Daley-Ward ... You will thank us for it

[bone] will hit you like a gut punch ... Some poems had me weeping; I printed others to pin to my wall for daily inspiration

[Yrsa Daley-Ward] is at the realm of a new wave of contemporary poets who inspire an unprecedented level of empathy and accessibility through their honest and raw approach . . . [A] powerful collection of a woman facing tumultuous inner and external battles head on, delivered with a hard-hitting directness, yet with inflections of optimism throughout that are bound to touch readers to their core

Another stunning excavator of human heat and light, Yrsa Daley-Ward goes straight to the messy beating heart of animal attraction with bone, mesmerizing poems that strip bare the pain and beauty of negotiating longing, sex and love

'You will come away bruised. 
You will come away bruised 
but this will give you poetry.' 
 
Global star Yrsa Daley-Ward's collection bone is something unique and beautiful. Visceral, revealing, and unrelenting, Yrsa's poetry ranges from brief glimpses of stark emotional reality that have won her tens of thousands of Instagram followers to longer, often autobiographical poems that delve deep into her Afro-Caribbean heritage, mental health, and sexuality. This fearless collection from an unflinchingly strong new voice cements Yrsa as one of the most exciting young poets of the day.

The Catch

Hailing from the northwest of England, Yrsa Daley-Ward is a poet, writer, and actress of mixed Jamaican and Nigerian heritage. She is the author of The How, bone, and The Terrible, her autobiographical novel, for which she won the PEN Ackerley Prize. Yrsa fuses poetry with theatre, music, and storytelling and has been writing for as long as she can remember. She also co-wrote Black Is King, Beyoncé's musical film and visual album. Her popular Substack newsletter 'The Utter' goes out to tens of thousands of subscribers weekly. She splits her time between London, Los Angeles and New York.

A darkly whimsical debut about women daring to live and create with impunity. 
Twin sisters Clara and Dempsey have always struggled to relate, their familial bond severed after their mother vanished into the Thames. In adulthood, they are content to be all but estranged, until Clara sees a woman who looks exactly like their mother on the streets of London. The catch: this version of Serene, aged not a day, has enjoyed a childless life. 
 
Clara, a celebrity author in desperate need of validation, believes Serene is their mother, while Dempsey, isolated and content to remain so, believes she is a con woman. As they clash over this stranger, the sisters hurtle toward an altercation that threatens their very existence, forcing them to finally confront their pasts--together. In her riveting first foray into fiction, Yrsa Daley-Ward conjures a kaleidoscopic multiverse of daughterhood and mother-want, exploring the sacrifices that Black women must make for self-actualization. The result is a marvel of a debut novel that boldly asks, "How can it ever, ever be a crime to choose yourself?"

Yrsa Daley-Ward

The How

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