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Lucy Mangan talks to Nicola Cutcher

Bookish: How Reading Shapes Our Lives

Hay Festival 2025, 

Lucy Mangan grew up as a bookworm. As an adult, she uses her relationship with literature to seize upon the most important question: (how) do books prepare us for life?

Wend your way through the bookshelves with Mangan as she recounts her metamorphosis from young bookworm to bookish adult. She looks at the books and stories which accompanied her in important life stages, including falling in love, finding a job, becoming a mother and navigating grief.

Mangan’s Bookish is a sequel to her bestselling book Bookworm. She is TV critic for the Guardian, and also writes for Stylist magazine, the Telegraph and others.

Lucy Mangan talks to Nicola Cutcher