Leeds Gliterary Lunch with Jodie Chapman & Rebecca Wait

Oh Sister
Jodie Chapman

The Author

Jodie Chapman is an exciting new voice in fiction.  Jodie spent twelve years working as a photographer before returning to witing, her first love. Her debut, Another Life was selected as a BBC2 Behind the Covers pick and was praised by writers and reviewers alike. While not autobiographical, the central character was influenced by Jodie’s own experience of being raised as a Jehovah’s witness and leaving the faith. Jodie lives in Kent with her husband and three sons.  Oh Sister is her second novel.

The Book

Three women. Three lives. One chance to find themselves…  Oh Sister is a beautifully written, heartfelt and heart-breaking novel that explores identity, expectation, and the bonds between women.

Their personal standpoints could not be more different. Jen – ‘my body is not my own; others make life and death decision on my behalf’;  Isobel – ‘my place is to be secondary to the man in my life’, and Zelda – ‘if I break the rules, I will be sorry’.  The only thing they have in common is where they’ve come from. But when they must leave that shared background behind, can they help each other figure out where they’re going, and can they truly break free?

Praise for Jodie Chapman

This beautiful tale of love, loss and sacrifice will break your heart. Daily Mail

I'm Sorry You Feel That Way
Rebecca Wait

The Author

Rebecca Wait grew up in Oxfordshire. Alongside her writing she teaches in a London secondary school. She has written for the New Statesman, Independent and The Pool on subjects as diverse as suicide, cults and autism and has appeared on Woman’s Hour. Her previous novels, The View on the Way Down, The Followers and Our Fathers attracted widespread praise.

The Book

Twins Alice and Hanna are pigeon-holed as saint and sinner. Their mother takes a divide-and-conquer approach to child-rearing, and their father, an absent one. The disapproval of older brother Michael is a force to be reckoned with.  And there is the catastrophe that is never spoken of, but which has shaped everything.  As adults, Alice and Hanna negotiate increasingly complicated family tensions, finding themselves in situations that are often absurd and hilarious but always acutely and often movingly written.  Ultimately, they must decide at last whether life is really anything more than (as Hanna would have it) a tragedy with a few hilarious moments.  Rebecca Wait writes awkwardness, anxiety and excruciating family dynamics with wry sensitivity and humour.

Praise for Rebecca Wait

‘A masterclass in familial tensions, with razor-sharp dialogue, wit and emotional insight.’ The Observer