Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees barely knew one another when they started writing the 90’s hit, Come Together, a rom-com told in alternate chapters from the male and female perspective. Twenty-five years later, married with three children, they’ve just co-written You & Me and You & Me and You & Me, a comedy romance about a fifty-something couple who find a time machine in their garden shed. To mark is publication, Josie and Emlyn have shared with us their favourite five love stories.
As hilarious on the page as it is on the screen, this much-treasured book is a masterclass in rom-com storytelling. The writing is whip smart and beautifully observational; all set around the central question of whether men and women can be friends, something we debated long and hard about before we first got together! At the core of it, Harry and Sally both have a real fear of ending up alone or getting it wrong, which makes it so relatable. Every time we read it, we learn something new.
We love this for it’s juicy portrayal of the sexual tensions in a creative partnership. The structure is so clever, with the contradictory interview style making it feel so real, that we wondered if the band actually existed. It’s so interesting how people remember things differently – we certainly do. It’s so very human, but as readers we’re always after ‘the truth’. We both like reading flawed, messy characters and Daisy and Billy collide in a spectacular explosion of ego, love, ambition and addiction. They’re ‘almost’ perfect for one another, but just not quite. Absolutely gripping.
We’re both music obsessives, and we’ve always loved the song ‘So Long, Marianne’ by Leonard Cohen, so we were delighted to discover this novel which takes us to the context behind it. Erica, who plays an observational role shows us the artists before they became legends, in a story about passion and growing up. Set in 1960’s sun-soaked Hydra, this soft, sensual novel has such a vivid sense of place, it taps into our romantic, artistic fantasy of running away to live somewhere beautiful and to be free to be wild and creative.
Deliciously buttoned up and restrained, this ultimate “what-if” story is all about what doesn’t happen, and all the more powerful for it. Without any dramatics, Wharton manages to ramp up the tension, skewering social hypocrisy on the way. It’s about the small choices we make in life, and their devastating consequences, something we talked a lot about when writing our latest book. Even though it’s a classic, it still feels quite modern. It’s also very brave – the final heartbreaking scene refusing to deliver the catharsis we’re longing for.
We chose this because we understand what it feels like to share a deep creative partnership and how it feels like to build something together. Emlyn loves video games, so he liked that side of the book, but Josie enjoyed the ache of time, and how the story was set over decades. It’s also a rather beautiful book about friendship love. We read back-to-back in bed, both loving it as much as the other.
