Dorothy Koomson is the award-winning author of 15 novels and has been making up stories since she was 13 when she used to share her stories with her convent school friends. Her published titles include: Tell Me Your Secret, The Brighton Mermaid, The Friend, When I Was Invisible, That Girl From Nowhere, The Flavours of Love, The Woman He Loved Before, Goodnight, Beautiful and The Chocolate Run.
Dorothy’s first novel, The Cupid Effect, was published in 2003 (when she was quite a bit older than 13). Her third book, My Best Friend’s Girl, was selected for the Richard & Judy Summer Reads of 2006 and went on to sell over 500,000 copies. While her fourth novel, Marshmallows For Breakfast, has sold in excess of 250,000 copies. Dorothy’s books, The Ice Cream Girls and The Rose Petal Beach were both shortlisted for the popular fiction category of the British Book Awards in 2010 and 2013, respectively.
Dorothy’s novels have been translated into over 30 languages, and a TV adaptation loosely based on The Ice Cream Girls was shown on ITV1 in 2013. After briefly living in Australia, Dorothy now lives in Brighton.
In 2019 Dorothy was awarded the Image Award by The Black British Business Awards to celebrate and honour her achievements.
Tell me about your book and why we should read it?
My Other Husband is the story of a crime writer called Cleo who someone is trying to frame for murder by bumping off people in the same way that Cleo writes about. Everyone should read it cos I had so much fun writing it, I’m certain you’ll enjoy reading it.
If someone was to write your life story what would the title be?
Isn’t This Exciting!
What’s the strangest fan question or request you’ve received?
Someone once asked me to send them a picture of Nate and Luke from My Best Friend’s Girl. I had to gently tell her I couldn’t because they didn’t exist.
If you could co-write with anyone in the world (alive or dead) who would it be?
Cleo Forsum, the character from my latest book. I’d love to bump off people while writing about cake, like she does.
Tell me something nobody else knows about you (yet!).
I can’t say the word aubergine.
Finally please recommend 3 books that you have recently read and tell me why you’ve chosen these.
This One Sky Day by Leone Ross, Next of Kin by Kia Abdullah and The Second Time We Met by Frances Mensah Williams, three very different books that more than satisfied my reading tastes – magical realism, crime and rom com.
Dorothy Koomson’s My Other Husband (Headline Review, £16.99) is on sale from 18 August 2022.
