'If you haven't got the Louise Doughty habit, then get it now, she's the tops.'

Louise Doughty is a novelist, playwright and critic. She is the author of six novels; CRAZY PAVING, DANCE WITH ME, HONEY-DEW, FIRES IN THE DARK, STONE CRADLE and the recently published WHATEVER YOU LOVE.  She has also written one work of non-fiction, A NOVEL IN A YEAR. She has written five plays for radio and worked widely as a critic and broadcaster in the UK, where she lives, and was a judge for the 2008 Man Booker Prize for fiction.

'WHATEVER YOU LOVE is a masterfully constructed novel, at once gripping and tender... a brilliant and brutal novel that continues to unsettle long after the final page has been turned.'
The Observer
Read the full review here

'The reader is spellbound as we go back through Laura's failed marriage to David, her unresolved feelings about his new partner Chloe, and her hatred of the driver. I won't give away the surprise twists in the plot... so powerful is the evocation of raw emotion that, the day after I finished it, I woke up with that same feeling. It was some minutes before I realised I was still inside Doughty's book.'
Reader's Digest

'Gripping, absorbing, beautifully constructed and written with great sensitivity.'
Hilary Mantel, winner of the Man Booker Prize 2009

'Louise Doughty describes Laura's journey from overwhelming loss to vengeance with great insight and raw, compelling emotional power.'
Helen Dunmore, winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction 1995

'Brutal, fearless and masterfully told, this is a story of immense emotional power and, for all its bleakness, oddly beautiful.  In this white-knuckle ride into the darkest reaches of the human heart, Doughty has conjured a work of terrible force.'
Liz Jensen, author of The Rapture

A beautifully written meditation on the power of love and grief... An absolutely gripping tale of love, loss and revenge. Very highly recommended - I loved it.'
The Bookseller

Once upon a life: Louise Doughty

On a family holiday in Devon in 1974, 11-year-old Louise Doughty left the campsite after a row with her brother. It wasn't long before she was "helplessly, hopelessly" lost. Here, in The Observer, she relives the ordeal and explains why, after 35 years, she finally apologised to her mother.