Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett – författare

The story of a group holiday from which no one emerges unchanged, Female, Nude is the perfect summer escape: propulsive, thought-provoking, sexy and relatable.

''Sharp and incisive with a sinewy, sultry quality that makes it really moreish'' Pandora Sykes''Energetic and ambitious...thoroughly enjoyable'' Guardian''I was engrossed...it''s stylish and sexy and I loved the setting and all the food'' Amy Liptrot''What a gorgeous, hot-blooded novel about art, the senses, and the multitudes of the female body'' Charlotte Runcie''Magnetically written'' Stylist''Beautifully human...Romantic and heady and violent and sexy'' Kirsty Capes''Sultry and immediate'' Sophie MackintoshSophie, a painter, is holidaying with friends in a stunning villa in Greece - her best friend Helena is shortly to be married, and this is the last time she and her friends will be together as single women. But life has treated them so differently since their university days, that Sophie is questioning everything about their friendship. Meanwhile her partner, Greg, is desperate for them to try for a baby, but she wants to devote herself to her art - and there are other, deeper forces, pulling the two of them in opposite directions.

In the course of the holiday, Sophie paints a nude portrait of her friend Alessia, and becomes involved in an intense affair with Ky, who lives and works on the island. Both the painting, and the affair, will challenge everything Sophie thinks she knows, about art, about motherhood, about sex - and about how and with whom she wants to spend the rest of her life.

''A brave process of healing and self reconstruction'' Observer''Simply one of the best writers working today. Here''s to family, to glamour, and to love'' Nell Frizzell, author of The Panic YearsI looked around at my flat, at the woodchip wallpaper and scuffed furniture, and realised that I did have a life after all. What it didn''t have in it was a cat.When Rhiannon fell in love with, and eventually married her flatmate, she imagined they might one day move on. But this is London in the age of generation rent, and so they share their home with a succession of friends and strangers while saving for a life less makeshift. The desire for a baby is never far from the surface, but can she be sure that she will ever be free of the anxiety she has experienced since an attack in the street one night? And after a childhood spent caring for her autistic brother does she really want to devote herself to motherhood?Moving through the seasons over the course of lockdown, The Year of the Cat nimbly charts the way a kitten called Mackerel walked into Rhiannon''s home and heart, and taught her to face down her fears and appreciate quite how much love she had to offer.''A superbly written, special book'' Olivia Sudjic, author of Asylum Road''Beautifully captures that liminal period before any life-changing decision'' New Statesman