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Susie Boyt

Life & Arts Columnist

Susie Boyt writes a column on shopping for the FT Weekend supplement. She is a novelist and lives in London.

Email Susie Boyt @SusieBoyt (link opens in a new browser window)
Email Susie Boyt @SusieBoyt (link opens in a new browser window)

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  • Wednesday, 23 December, 2020
    Life & Arts
    Dreaming of a wild Christmas

    We’ve been given a reprieve from the season’s excesses — so why does it all feel so wrong?

  • Tuesday, 15 December, 2020
    ReviewNon-Fiction
    Kant’s Little Prussian Head & Other Reasons Why I Write — uplifting tales on the power of books

    Claire Messud’s complex collection of essays look at authors and artists through her own family dynamics  

  • Friday, 7 February, 2020
    Style
    Embrace Valentine’s Day — lean in to the lovely

    Could the day be remastered with a bit of wit and flair?

  • Friday, 17 January, 2020
    ReviewBiography and memoir
    Motherwell — a heart-rending memoir of girlhood

    The late Deborah Orr’s book evokes working-class origins in a patriarchal Scottish community

  • Friday, 20 December, 2019
    Life & Arts
    Why not have Christmas every other year?

    The season of goodwill plays to my strengths — but it asks a lot of its devotees

  • Friday, 6 December, 2019
    Style
    How to make your big party truly memorable

    Is having a loved one jump out of a giant cake too much to ask?

  • Friday, 1 November, 2019
    ReviewFashion
    Review: How to dress the crown

    Tiaras, tweed and cups of tea: a new book by the monarch’s personal stylist reveals the inner workings of the royal wardrobe

  • Friday, 4 October, 2019
    FT Magazine
    Loss, grief and how I learnt the art of consolation

    To be reminded that what we feel is natural and sane can make all the difference, writes Susie Boyt

  • Friday, 27 September, 2019
    Style
    From girlish ginghams to stage sequins: Judy Garland’s star style

    A new biopic starring Renée Zellweger is set to put the singer’s wardrobe back in the spotlight

  • Promoted Content
  • Friday, 12 July, 2019
    ReviewFiction
    Big Sky by Kate Atkinson — detective with a purpose

    Loveable Yorkshire sleuth is drawn into a case worth fighting for

  • Friday, 19 April, 2019
    ReviewFiction
    Things In Jars — the worst place to get in a pickle

    Jess Kidd’s detective heroine inhabits a Victorian London that is revealed in all its stench and glory

  • Friday, 1 March, 2019
    ReviewFiction
    Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi — elegant but complex

    Family history and mythical lands pervade a rich, clever, rueful and sometimes maddening work

  • Friday, 1 February, 2019
    ReviewFiction
    Graceland by Bethan Roberts — Elvis and his mother

    A surprisingly sober fictionalised recreation of the King’s early life with Gladys

  • Friday, 19 October, 2018
    ReviewBiography and memoir
    The mirthful, austere Bill Cunningham

    A delightful memoir by the fashion photographer about his troublesome, flamboyant boyhood — and a later passion for hats

  • Friday, 5 October, 2018
    ReviewFiction
    In the City of Love’s Sleep by Lavinia Greenlaw — not for public display

    Two heartbroken people seek out a shared life in this ambitious, refined novel about attraction, disappointment, loss and care

  • Friday, 7 September, 2018
    Fiction
    Fiction, home of the good deed

    Susie Boyt on why kindness in literature, from Austen to Bellow, should be cherished and treated with caution

  • Wednesday, 29 August, 2018
    ReviewBiography and memoir
    William Miller recalls life in the gene pool of competitive typing

    A memoir of an upbringing in an intellectual elite full of clashes and strictures

  • Friday, 24 August, 2018
    ReviewFiction
    All Among the Barley by Melissa Harrison — farm hands

    A girl’s imagination adds colour to rural life in 1930s England in this evocative tale

  • Friday, 13 July, 2018
    Life & Arts
    Why laundry sheets never looked so chic

    Susie Boyt unfolds the immaculate allure of the linen cupboard

  • Friday, 11 May, 2018
    FT Best ofNovels to read now
    Mothers by Chris Power — strange tales of maternal deprivation

    A daring collection of short stories with an aura of cool and featuring dislocated characters

  • Friday, 27 April, 2018
    FT Best ofNovels to read now
    All the Beautiful Girls by Elizabeth J Church — loss and glamour

    A moving and involving story about a Las Vegas showgirl attempting to conquer past demons

  • Thursday, 12 April, 2018
    Style
    No present — and incorrect

    The ‘no presents’ edict sadly de-skills me. It somehow makes me feel deprived

  • Friday, 23 March, 2018
    FT MagazineBring on spring: a Food & Drink special
    Party-giving is an extreme sport. Here’s how to do it well

    Susie Boyt, herself a devotee of extreme entertaining, shares her tips: from lavish food to fragrant flowers and the vital importance of “a bit of theatre”

  • Friday, 16 March, 2018
    Fashion
    In search of springspiration

    When the winter seems endless, could a seasonal dress put a spring in your step?

  • Friday, 16 February, 2018
    ReviewFiction
    Sal by Mick Kitson — born survivors

    Two sisters in flight from a troubled home find solace in the Scottish wilderness

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