For our latest author interview, we couldn’t be more delighted for Coco Mellors to join us in conversation. Born in London and based in New York, Coco is the star novelist behind Cleopatra and Frankenstein and Blue Sisters (both Sunday Times Bestsellers), and is currently working on her third novel. Much like the prose you find on the pages of stories – heartfelt, memorable and magically crafted – her responses to our 12 quick questions only made us love her more.
What’s the book you always gift to friends?
Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion.
Which book have you reread the most?
Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin.
What are you reading at the moment?
Evenings and Weekends by Oisín McKenna.
What are your reading habits like?
I read in bed every night until my eyes tell me “enough!” and close for business.
You're lucky to call both NY & London home. Which book reminds you of each city?
NW by Zadie Smith is a perfect encapsulation of London for me and Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan is New York.
What’s your favorite British word versus your favorite American term?
Describing anything as “classic bants”, especially extremely uneventful things, like when my son drinks all his milk and my husband and I are like, “classic baby bants!”
It’s not a phrase, but I love the way Americans say chocolate. That first “o” is drawn out in such a luxurious way.
What was your path to becoming an author?
Slow and steady. I worked as a fashion copywriter in my twenties and started Cleopatra and Frankenstein while doing an MFA at NYU, then continued writing it whenever I could, mostly on the weekends at the library, until I had a solid draft to send to agents. It took five years to finish and then (famously!) was rejected by thirty publishers until Bloomsbury in the US, and 4th Estate in the UK, very kindly offered to read a new draft if I made some changes, and then they both bought it. Then it took two more years to come out, so the whole experience was very much an exercise in faith and patience — though a joyful one as I adored writing that book. The day I sold it was one of the happiest of my life.
I wrote most of Blue Sisters while living in LA during the pandemic, in a little garden at the back of our bungalow by the sea. It was a much more peaceful, though sometimes lonely, writing process. Selling that book was also such a different experience. Not being rejected for months on end? Such a thrill! I ended up at Ballantine in the US, who are my dream publisher. Now I’m working on my third novel, which I thought might be easier but – plot twist! – is actually harder because I have a new baby and decided to write it all in first person, which is not my comfort zone as a point of view. But it’s also fun, because if I’m not challenging myself to write the book I’m afraid I can’t write, I’m probably not writing the best book I can. So I’m keeping myself on my toes!
What is the importance of telling stories?
Empathy, empathy, empathy.
How would you describe your writing process in five words?
It’s all in the edit.
Which 3 other authors or literary characters would you choose as housemates?
Madame Bovary, Miranda July and Simone de Beauvoir because they’d all have great wardrobes to borrow from.
Which stationery item is your secret weapon for getting super organized?
To-do lists — I live by them!
How much of your writing process happens with pen and paper?
Increasingly less and I have the terrible penmanship to prove it! Although I was recently given a blue fountain pen as a gift for Blue Sisters and I’m determined to use it, so hopefully things will take a turn.
Fancy staying up-to-date with Coco’s writing, book tours among other wonderful things? Follow her on Instagram this way.
