Our host Vick Hope is joined by comedian, actor and writer Cariad Lloyd.

Cariad is the creator and host of the award-winning podcast Griefcast and the smash-hit improv show Austentatious. She has starred in TV shows such as Alan Partridge, Peep Show, Inside No. 9 and featured on Have I Got News For You. Cariad’s first book You Are Not Alone was a New Statesman, The Times and Express book of the year in 2023. Her new children’s book, The Christmas Wish-Tastrophe, is out now

Listen to the full episode here and read on to see Cariad’s top five most influential books written by women.

Moominland Midwinter

by Tove Jansson

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I came back to this book during one of the lockdowns, I think it was during the second winter and we were all like “Oh God, not again” – I just remember London felt Dickensian to me, like the streets were empty and it was bitterly, bitterly cold. As a performer and a creative I thought my world might have gone, like everything was gone. And I started reading this book to my daughter – it soothed my soul so wholeheartedly […] I think this is such an amazing metaphor for sadness, for grief, that you can cope with it, you can survive it. Spring is coming, snow will melt.

By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept

by Elizabeth Smart

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I loved this book when I was at university, it spoke to every part of my deep romantic soul. I think it’s also a book that a lot of people haven’t heard of, even though it’s sort of known as a feminist classic but it got lost along the way […] It’s all written in poetic prose and it’s deeply over-the-top and emotional in a way that only someone in young love can write. It makes your heart sing and I remember reading this book at university after a breakup and just feeling like “Yes, yes, somebody understands what this devastation feels like!”

Half of a Yellow Sun

by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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I don’t have the words for what she does in this book – it’s so sublime, it’s so genius. I am angry this book isn’t on syllabuses. As someone who grew up interested in history and still didn’t know about this – I felt embarrassed, I felt ashamed, I felt shocked […] You could hand this to a British person and get them to understand Britain’s involvement in countries, why they were involved in 1960 after Nigeria became an independent state […] This book just tore me inside out.

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

Wolf Hall

by Hilary Mantel

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Hilary Mantel makes you feel like [the characters] are gonna notice you. I would read this book and be like “I’ve got to be quiet in case Thomas Cromwell sees me, because I’m hearing a conversation I should not be hearing” – you feel like you’re genuinely eavesdropping on these people! I had to constantly remind myself this was fiction – she makes characters so real.

The Bay of Noon

by Shirley Hazzard

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The synopsis doesn’t tell you very much – she’s working in Naples, she meets an Italian woman, she has an affair with this man. If I describe what it’s about it doesn’t sound very thrilling but it’s the way she tells that story. I think it’s really nice that her books are about small things, are really gently observant and aren’t asking you to follow a grand plot – but to have someone who’s looking at eye movements and finger movements, and how someone’s breathing in a room. That can be a really nice place to spend with a writer.

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