Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin

Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin met as English Literature students at Cambridge University, where they began giving novels to each other whenever one of them seemed in need of a boost – or keeping on the straight and narrow.

Ella went on to study fine art and become a painter and art teacher, while keeping up her intravenous diet of literature through constant reading and listening to audiobooks. She lives in Sussex with her husband and three girls.

Susan became a novelist (Sunset Over Chocolate Mountains and The Voices, both Fourth Estate) and in 2003 was listed by Granta as one of the Twenty Best of Young British Novelists. She also teaches creative writing and reviews fiction for The Financial Times. She now lives with her husband and son in Connecticut, where she regularly kayaks with a novel in hand.

In 2008 they set up the bibliotherapy service at The School of Life in London, and since then have been prescribing books either virtually or in person to patients all over the world. Though they are now divided by an ocean, they still regularly send each other fictional cures to ensure they don't come a cropper, or fail to live life to the full.

The Novel Cure is their first book together, but they are already busy plotting the next.

Find out more

ellaberthoud.com
susanelderkin.com

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