How To Be A Heroine: Or, what Ive learned from reading too much

(Paperback)

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A funny, touching, inspiring exploration of the role of heroines, and our favourite books, in all our lives. Cathy Earnshaw or Jane Eyre Petrova or Posy Scarlett or Melanie Lace or Valley of the Dolls On a pilgrimage to Wuthering Heights, Samantha Ellis found herself arguing with her best friend about which heroine was best- Jane Eyre or Cathy Earnshaw. She was all for wild, passionate Cathy; but her friend found Cathy silly, a snob, while courageous Jane makes her own way. And that's when Samantha realised that all her life she'd been trying to be Cathy when she should have been trying to be Jane. So she decided to look again at her heroines - the girls, women, books that had shaped her ideas of the world and how to live. Some of them stood up to the scrutiny (she will always love Lizzy Bennet); some of them most decidedly did not (turns out Katy Carr from What Katy Did isn't a carefree rebel, she's a drip). There were revelations (the real heroine of Gone with the Wind It's Melanie), joyous reunions (Anne of Green Gables), poignant memories (Sylvia Plath) and tearful goodbyes (Lucy Honeychurch). And then there was Jilly Cooper... How To Be A Heroine is Samantha's funny, touching, inspiring exploration of the role of heroines, and our favourite books, in all our lives - and how they change over time, for better or worse, just as we do.

Reviews

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 Ive 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 *

Author Bio

The daughter of Iraqi-Jewish refugees, Samantha Ellis is the author of the books How to be a Heroine and Take Courage and her plays include How to Date a Feminist, Cling to me Like Ivy and Operation Magic Carpet. Her journalism has appeared in the Guardian, TLS, Spectator, Literary Review and more. She worked on the first two Paddington films. She lives in London.