Lucy Mangan
Agent: Juliet Pickering
Assistant: Finlay Charlesworth
Lucy Mangan is a journalist and columnist. She was educated in Catford and Cambridge; she studied English at the latter and then spent two years training as a solicitor, but left as soon as she qualified and went to work much more happily in a bookshop instead. She got a work experience placement at the Guardian in 2003 and hung around until they gave her a job. Lucy is now TV critic at the Guardian, and a columnist for The i newspaper. She has written for most of the major women's magazines, including Grazia, Cosmopolitan, and Stylist. She was named Columnist of the Year at the PPA Awards in 2013.
In 2009, a collection of her columns from the Guardian was published as MY FAMILY AND OTHER DISASTERS. Her other works include HOPSCOTCH AND HANDBAGS: The Essential Guide to Being a Girl, a book about the experience of growing up in 80s suburbia, and THE RELUCTANT BRIDE, the lightly-fictionalised story of her wedding. INSIDE CHARLIE’S CHOCOLATE FACTORY, a commemoration of 50 years of Roald Dahl's CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, was published by Puffin UK/US in 2014.
Lucy's memoir BOOKWORM, a personal history and celebration of children’s literature, was published by Vintage in March 2018. Her debut novel ARE WE HAVING FUN YET? was published by Profile Books in October 2021. BOOKISH, a sequel to BOOKWORM, will be published by Vintage in 2025
She lives in London with one husband, one son, two cats and fourteen double-stacked Billy bookcases.
BOOKISH
Memoir, 336 pages
Square Peg, 2025
A love letter to all those who come alive when they pull a new treasure off the shelf, who stay up late reading just one more page, who pack their suitcases with clothes wedged between books instead of the other way around.
BOOKISH is the story of a life spent falling in love with reading. From exploring the stacks as a student, to finding her feet as a bookseller turned journalist, falling for a fellow bookworm in an independent bookshop, escaping the doldrums of new motherhood with Jack Reacher and finally building a (book) room of her own, BOOKWORM author Lucy Mangan chronicles her years of buying, borrowing and hoarding everything from well-worn literary classics to steamy bonkbusters, gripping thrillers, young adult novels, and other not-so-guilty pleasures.
Brimming with literary insights, wry observations and stellar recommendations, this book is an ode to the bookish places – from local libraries to bookstores big and small – and the stories that make us who we are.
ARE WE HAVING FUN YET
Fiction, 320 pages
Souvenir Press, October 2021
Meet Liz: all she wants is some peace and quiet so she can read a book with her cat Henry, love of her life, by her side. But trampling all over this dream is a group of wild things also known as Liz's family. Namely:
Richard - a man, a husband, no serious rival to Henry.
Thomas - their sensitive seven year old son, for whom life is a bed of pain already.
Evie - five year old acrobat, gangster, anarchist, daughter.
And as if her family's demands (Where are the door keys? Are we made of plastic? Do 'ghost poos' really count?) weren't enough, Liz must also contend with the madness of parents, friends, bosses, and at least one hovering nemesis. Are We Having Fun Yet? is a year with one woman as she faces all the storms of modern life (babysitters, death, threadworms) on her epic quest for that holy grail: a moment to herself.
BOOKWORM
Memoir, 336 pages
Square Peg, 2018
When Lucy Mangan was little, stories were everything. They opened up new worlds and cast light on all the complexities she encountered in this one.
She was whisked away to Narnia - and Kirrin Island - and Wonderland. She ventured down rabbit holes and womble burrows into midnight gardens and chocolate factories. She wandered the countryside with Milly-Molly-Mandy, and played by the tracks with the Railway Children. With Charlotte's Web she discovered Death and with Judy Blume it was Boys. No wonder she only left the house for her weekly trip to the library or to spend her pocket money on amassing her own at home.
In BOOKWORM, Lucy revisits her childhood reading with wit, love and gratitude. She relives our best-beloved books, their extraordinary creators, and looks at the thousand subtle ways they shape our lives. She also disinters a few forgotten treasures to inspire the next generation of bookworms and set them on their way.
Lucy brings the favourite characters of our collective childhoods back to life - prompting endless re-readings, rediscoveries, and, inevitably, fierce debate - and brilliantly uses them to tell her own story, that of a born, and unrepentant, bookworm.
INSIDE CHARLIE'S CHOCOLATE FACTORY
Literature, 224 pages
Puffin UK/US, 2014
Lucy Mangan explores the wide-ranging influence that , Charlie Bucket, Willy Wonka and the Oompa-Loompas have had on our culture. The book features 100s of images, including previously unseen material from the Roald Dahl archive and behind-the-scenes photographs from the films, musical and more.