7 books recommended by Dolly Alderton

East Meera Sodha

In 2019, Dolly took to Instagram to give this book the best praise imaginable for a cookbook: ‘I have cooked from this beautiful and totally fool-proof recipe book four times this week,’ she wrote. ‘@meerasodha – what did I do before you and your silky coconutty tomato curry?’ With 120 easy Asian-inspired vegetarian and vegan recipes inside, this book is highly recommended for anyone hoping to venture into plant-based eating. (Psst . . . try a recipe here!)

I Feel Bad About My Neck Nora Ephron

Dolly recommended this book in a 2019 Instagram post, after writing the introduction for a new format of Nora Ephron’s collection of candid, hilarious essays on womanhood: I Feel Bad About My Neck. ‘I first read it in my early twenties and I have given every friend a copy for a birthday at some point. It’s warm, reassuring, hilarious - one of my most quoted books in my writing - and you’ll return to it time and time again.’

The Interestings Meg Wolitzer

Dolly included this novel by Meg Wolitzer in a 2019 Instagram roundup featuring several books discussed on her former podcast, The High Low, with fellow author Pandora Sykes. Following six friends from teenagerdom to adulthood, the book charts their transformation from talented adolescents to ‘interesting’ adults of varying degrees.

Money Martin Amis

Money is one of four Martin Amis books that Dolly shared in an Instagram post. Praising the rejackets of The Rachel Papers, Time’s Arrow and Lionel Asbo in addition to Money, she promised that she ‘would not demand a personality’ from anyone who had these lining their shelves.

A Half Baked Idea Olivia Potts

Another one recommended by Dolly on The High Low was A Half Baked Idea by Oliva Potts. A moving memoir, the book tells Olivia’s true story of how she made a drastic life change for the better. When she was just twenty-five, the author’s mother died. Stricken with grief, Olivia gave up her high-flying legal career to study at Le Cordon Bleu. Interspersed with recipes, the life-affirming cookbook charts her course to a happier life – complete with more macaroons.

Lady Sings the Blues Billie Holiday

When a new edition of Billie Holiday’s Lady Sings the Blues was published in 2018, Dolly shared praise of her old favourite on Instagram. ‘I'm so, so happy to see this beautiful new edition of Billie Holiday's breathtaking 1956 autobiography,’ she wrote, noting that she first read the book at age twelve. ‘I still love reading the turned down pages now, and I still always cry at the last chapter. It's an extraordinary story of loss and longing and pain and passion; about pre-civil rights America as much as it is about the greatest blues singer of our time.’

Any Human Heart William Boyd

In a 2021 interview with Good Housekeeping, Dolly shared that Any Human Heart is her favourite book of all time. ‘The novel does a full exploration of one human; you watch him have all these relationships and experiences and you watch how this man is shaped and carved by different people that come in and out of his life,’ she said. ‘It’s an odyssey of a book and it has influenced me heavily as I felt so close to the protagonist. I read it in Italy and I felt like the lead character was there next to me.’

And if you haven't already read Dolly Alderton's books, you should also check out: 

Good Material Dolly Alderton

Every relationship has one beginning.This one has two endings.

Andy loves Jen. Jen loved Andy. And he can't work out why she stopped.

Now he is. . .

1. Without a home

2. Waiting for his stand-up career to take off

3. Wondering why everyone else around him seems to have grown up while he wasn't looking

Dear Dolly Dolly Alderton

Since early 2020, Dolly Alderton has been sharing her wisdom, warmth and wit with the countless people who have written in to her Dear Dolly agony aunt column in The Sunday Times Style. Their questions range from the painfully – and sometimes hilariously – relatable to the occasionally bizarre. They include breakups and body issues, families, friendships, dating, divorce, the pleasures and pitfalls of social media, sex, loneliness, longing, love and everything in between.

Ghosts Dolly Alderton

Nina Dean has arrived at her early thirties as a successful food writer with loving friends and family, plus a new home and neighbourhood. When she meets Max, a beguiling romantic hero who tells her on date one that he's going to marry her, it feels like all is going to plan. A new relationship couldn't have come at a better time - her thirties have not been the liberating, uncomplicated experience she was sold.

Everything I Know About Love Dolly Alderton

When it comes to the trials and triumphs of becoming a grown up, journalist Dolly Alderton has seen and tried it all. In her memoir, she vividly recounts falling in love, wrestling with self-sabotage, finding a job, throwing a socially disastrous Rod-Stewart themed house party, getting drunk, getting dumped, realising that Ivan from the corner shop is the only man you've ever been able to rely on, and finding that that your mates are always there at the end of every messy night out. Glittering, with wit and insight, heart and humour, this is a book about the struggles of early adulthood in all its grubby, hopeful uncertainty.