So Lucky: The bold, brilliant Sunday Times bestseller you need to read this year

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Writer and fashionista Sinéad Burke talks to Dawn about breaking into a competitive industry, representation, and loving the skin your in. What O'Porter does brilliantly throughout the book is combine real humour with some major and very current themes around the pressures of modern life - mental health, body image, relationship woes, self esteem and the impact of social media amongst them. As a result the book makes you laugh at times, at other times it makes you think hard and brings a lump to your throat as you reflect on the challenges women face. O'Porter ensures the book ends on a positive note with plenty of humour and a message about the power of sisterhood.

The story follows three women, Ruby who is separated with a three year old daughter who she finds hard to manage and get along with. She also has a condition which makes her feel she must isolate herself from everyone. Thank you Dawn for writing such an unflinchingly honest book about the best and worst things people can do to themselves and each other. I stumbled across this podcast after reading your book and I absolutely love this! I feel as though your content is so real and relatable to everyones day to day life and it’s good to know that no matter how big or small our problems are - we are all going through something. I devoured this book in a couple of days; a modern-day fable that warns against the perils of thinking the grass is always greener - an adage as old as time, but seemingly more prevalent than ever in today’s era of social media.Dawn also collects vintage clothing, and admits to writing her best work when she is wearing a bonkers seventies dress and her hair is a voluminous bob. I found myself really moved by these characters; they’re addictive, relatable and ‘real’. O’Porter does a brilliant job at following each woman’s trajectory of growth. Each character gets a chance to grow and develop throughout the novel. I think bringing kids up in LA - I don’t know what their future looks like in terms of being teenagers and who their friends will be but they’re not going to get any level of celebrity from me at all. I often write off celebrity authors and Dawn O'Porter has proved that I am completely wrong for doing so. I thoroughly enjoyed Dawn O'Porter's last book, The Cows, so was really looking forward to trying this new offering.

Warning! This book is rude, so rude but in a comedy, honest way. It had me howling, and I mean really howling with laughter! It’s fun, refreshing and powerful. It’s simply brilliant. I was always a funny little girl who was theatrical, but after my mum died I became even more so. I didn’t want anyone to mention the elephant in the room. I became the kid who spent more time trying to make people laugh than learning, and failed at everything as a result. The joking around was annoying, but I just couldn’t stop doing it. I got pulled up on it when I went to drama school years later. A teacher said to me: “You hide your pain by trying to make people laugh.” Like it was some really negative thing! I thought: “At least I’m not being miserable, and if that’s the reflex reaction to what I’ve been through, I’m not going to be ashamed of it. I’m going to embrace it.”

Ruby has a medical condition that affects her self-confidence has led to her being introverted, shy and rather grumpy and antisocial. She takes commissions to digitally retouch photographs for magazines, usually creating ‘the perfect woman’ which doesn’t make her feel any better about herself. She has a little girl Bonnie and is separated from her husband after a disastrous wedding day where she feels he betrayed her and let her down. Ruby had a bad relationship with her mother and doesn’t really know how to be a good Mum to Bonnie, not least because Bonnie is always playing up and never does what Ruby tells her to.

Alone they are ashamed of who they are or of their past but thrown together they learn that the one thing you can rely on in your life is another woman or in this case 3 other womenI’ve also always wanted to have fun with my clothes, but when you grow up on a small island like Guernsey you’ve got to be really brave to break away from what everyone else is doing. So I used to follow the herd, even though I knew I wanted to look different. Then, in my early 20s, I discovered vintage and that’s when it came together. After I gave up on modern fashion it was such a relief and everything made sense. I was raised by a dressmaker – my uncle made furs – and he’d turn clothes inside out and show me how they were stitched together, and I have so much sensory nostalgia for what my mum was like. Thought-provoking . . . Beautifully drawn characters espouse the idea that you shouldn’t judge any book by its cover’ Daily Mail There are some very humorous moments (Beth’s assistant Risky adds a lot of those!), and there are also some dark moments. My view of the characters changed a number of times as they made mistakes, but ultimately learned from them.

Dawn O’Porter in 1983 and 2022 Dawn O’Porter in 1983 and 2022. Later photograph: Simon Webb/The Guardian. Styling: Andie Redman. Hair and makeup: Heather Marnie. Archive photograph: courtesy of Dawn O’Porter

So glad I got to review this book as I will now be on the hunt for her others as this is the first one I have read. An amazing read, I hadn’t heard of this Author before and wasn’t sure of what to expect but wow, this book had me laughing out loud. I loved all of the characters, they always tried their best, even if it wasn’t the right thing. I will truly miss them all. I am so looking forward to finding more to read by this Author. I loved The Cows, so I was thrilled to be invited to read Dawn O’Porter’s new book, and it was indeed a fantastic read.