#ThisIsWhoIAm

So, last night I got to go to the wonderful launch party for my brilliant friend Harriet’s amazing book THE SQUARE ROOT OF SUMMER.

It was in the very swank fifth floor bar of Waterstones Piccadilly, and it was a dreamy summer night.  Harriet’s book is also seriously dreamy and I highly recommend you read it – it’s got physics, romance, bands and a cat called Umlaut.  I have serious love for this book.

The evening began with a panel of brilliant authors – Harriet, plus the legendary teen queen Sarra Manning, Leila Sales and Sarah Crossan, chaired by Anna James.  The theme of discussion, taken from Harriet’s book, was ‘This Is Who I Am’.  It was wonderful to hear such interesting women talking about being writers and being human people.

I was especially delighted that some of my own favourite formative books were mentioned – Harriet cited I Capture The Castle and I will now forever love Sarra Manning for saying the book that best represents her is Jilly Cooper’s classic Harriet.

I met lots of lovely people and was mostly all-round delighted to be celebrating wonderful Harriet and the really special and awesome The Square Root of Summer.

On the theme of ‘this is who I am’ – quite fitting because, of course, Jordan Catalano came up in the evening’s discussions – I’m afraid this video is an absolute must.