It is Candice Carty-Williams's follow-up to 2019's Queenie. Queenie Jenkins, now in her early to mid-30s, is questioning whether she wants kids, is being priced out of the housing market where she grew up, and is coping with heartbreak. Fern Cotton calls it perfect escapism.

She approached it almost like a research project, doing a lot of research first and then weaving it into the story. She felt it was a duty to inform, so the fertility facts are couched in funny stories or tips, but every single fact in the book is real.

She saw it as necessary, both a story and a warning. When her sister, now 28, had a baby five years ago, she went as her advocate and could not believe how her sister was treated as a young black woman, with nobody able to explain why.

They are amalgams of people she has met and spoken to, never person for person. She is obsessed with listening to people, focuses on character over plot, which she calls a side quest, and gives every character a star sign to help figure out who they are.

Carty-Williams says in your 30s accountability comes into play, and it is good to have friends who call you out and question your motivations. Queenie's friends love her enough to make her interrogate her choices, and writing friendship love matters more to her than anything else.

When first writing, she said she wanted it to be a black Bridget Jones, in everyone's house. She found Bridget Jones's Diary at her aunt's house aged 12, and Queenie's best friend is called Darcy in the first book as a love letter and a thank you.

She says her brain turns on at about 12, she gets to her office around 3 p.m. and works until nighttime. The office is a little pink room with a big sofa; the colour coding on the wall is mostly for show. She stopped writing in bed because she fell asleep.

She talks about it, with friends and especially her editor, explaining where she is and what she cannot do. Having someone in charge understand takes the pressure off, like telling the teacher. She stresses taking time, since rushing never gives the best results.

Just get the words on the page rather than waiting with three chapters. A debut is the only time the work is purely yours before it becomes work. Enjoy the first draft but finish it, because many agents are looking for certain things, so have it ready.

Fern Cotton repeatedly returns to The Four Agreements when in a dark space. Carty-Williams goes back to On Connection by Kay Tempest, a tiny book about reconnecting with yourself and others, which she found when she was working all the time and not seeing friends or family.