"Any woman with a remotely bookish childhood will find great pleasure in How to be a Heroine... like Ellis, I find it reassuring that Lizzy Bennet can admit that she was wrong about Darcy, have used Scarlett's indomitable mantra in times of adversity, and have every sympathy with the women who keep their bank accounts separate as in Lace" -- Daisy Goodwin Sunday Times "This is quite simply a genius idea for a book... A fantastically inspirational memoir that makes you want to reread far too many books" -- Viv Groskop Observer "Brilliant... From Lizzy Bennet to 'go-getting Judy Jordan' from Lace, Samantha Ellis did what we all do, mostly without realising: tried other people's lives on for size in literature" Red "The best kind of book: one that I gobbled up, wanting to go slow to savour it but unable to stop reading until it was all gone. One that made me want to run to the bookshop to buy copies of novels I've never got round to reading and devour those, too" -- Rebecca Armstrong Independent "Delightfully honest and warmly funny" -- Eithne Farry Daily Mail "It's not so much self-help as shelf-help, as Ellis applies fresh insights to her own life dilemmas and proffers some inspiring solutions to everyday problems. A truly brilliant read" Marie Claire "A delightful and hilarious memoir" The Economist "A treasure-trove of once beloved characters, if you spent your childhood and adolescence with your head in a book, you'll love How To Be A Heroine" -- Lucy Scholes Independent "An honest and open-hearted book by someone whose life has been informed and enriched by her reading" -- Susan Hill The Times "Samantha Ellis, a playwright brought up in London in an Iraqi-Jewish family, offers herself up in this warm-spirited biblio-autobiography... She is endearingly open about her vulnerabilities, superstitions, love tangles and defeats and is adept at droll asides" -- Claire Harman Guardian "This warm, witty memoir is perfect if you're the kind of woman for whom the Louisa May Alcott quote, "She is too fond of books and it has turned her head" reverberates... At the end of the day, this is a life-affirming feminist text, but one delivered with such dexterity and sly humour that it never feels like a polemic or prescription, making it well worth your time" Scotsman "It fizzes along, thanks to Ellis's warm humour and interesting back story... Plus, how could we resist a book that reminisces about Judy Blume novels?" Glamour "Ellis not only makes you want to go and re-read your own teenage canon but to recapture that mode of absorbing novels... If this is a defence of "reading for wisdom", then the wisdom in her own writing makes an eloquent testimony" -- Joanna Thomas-Corr Evening Standard "A real treat" Good Housekeeping "How to Be a Heroine is an honest, warm and readable book about the plots we follow in order to make sense of our lives, the selves we adopt as we grow up and the selves we shed... Wise, courageous and endlessly generous, Ellis is something of a heroine herself." -- Frances Wilson Literary Review
