Few debuts reach the dizzying heights of publishing phenomenon in the way that Candice Carty-Williams’ Queenie did in 2019. The bestselling novel earned itself legions of fans for its unforgettable heroine, fresh, distinctive voice, and acute social insight—but most of all, because it was outrageously funny, reports BritPanorama.
Now, as she returns with the much-anticipated follow-up, Queenie is Working On It, Carty-Williams shares the five funny books that have shaped her life and writing.
Heartburn by Nora Ephron
“I remember first reading this book on a long train journey with the friend who had recommended it to me. She very quickly regretted the recommendation after I ignored her for the rest of the journey, laughing at pretty much every single page from start to finish.
“It is a semi-autobiographical novel following a woman who, seven months pregnant, discovers her husband is in love with someone else. So many writers that I know or meet hold Ephron as one of our biggest influences, and for good reason. You can’t read a book written by the writer behind the film When Harry Met Sally and not laugh out loud.”
Virago, £10.99
Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison
“Now, this book has an incredibly special place in my heart. Again, I remember where I was when I first read it (which tells you how important and how funny it was to me). It came free with some sort of teen magazine back when I was 12, and I snapped the plastic wrapping off both and took it to the back of the bus and away from my chatting mum so I could read it in peace.
“From the first page of this book, which chronicles the teenage angst of the hilarious, hapless Georgina Nicholson, I was laughing. And even now, at 36, if I open any page of it, or the nine books that followed in the series, I will chuckle and shake my head. What a character she is.”
Hodder Children’s, £7.99
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾ by Sue Townsend
“I don’t know how I would have got through a lot of my teens and twenties without these books. I’m also realising in coming up with this list how much I depended on a series of a book rather than one singular journey of a character. I have followed a lot of funny characters through their lives as I’ve lived mine.
“What can I really say about Adrian Mole, who gives us a glimpse into his adventures in adolescence through his diary entries, other than that his particular brand of neuroses is as hilarious as it is iconic?”
Penguin, £9.99
The Rachel Papers by Martin Amis
“One of many books I read when I was way too young to do so—I spent a lot of my childhood snooping through the bookshelves of adults—this book is as funny as it is naughty.
“The so-called Rachel Papers are the deeply intricate and unnecessarily detailed files our main character keeps on his freshly ex-ed girlfriend, and what comes from them are some of the most amusing and astute descriptions of a person and their personality. These characters are more than a world away from who I am or how I grew up, which I think made this book all the more fascinating to me.”
Vintage, £9.99
Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding
“When Queenie first hit the shelves, in some interview or other I said that I wanted it to be a Black Bridget Jones—content-wise, no, scale-wise, yes.
“This book, about the eponymous Bridget’s misadventures in love, is one of the funniest and one of the most formative books for me—especially as a writer who tends towards humour in the way that Helen Fielding always did.”
Picador, £9.99
Queenie is Working on It by Candice Carty-Williams is out now (Trapeze, £20)
