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First-person features

From opinion pieces to personal experiences, the 600+ titles in the Booker Library inspire a range of views.

Browse our first-person features

Sophie Hughes

First person

International Booker Prize 2026 judge Sophie Hughes on finding time to read more

A chair is hit by shadows and lights from facing blinds on a window. The image features the book cover of Quartet in Autumn and the 'Monthly Spotlight' lettering.

First person

Samantha Harvey on Quartet in Autumn: ‘It’s a crackling, funny novel and joyful to adapt’

A group of five people sit around a small table, holding books and takeaway coffee books

First person

‘We cry, laugh, and grow wiser with each story’ – how book clubs bring us together

Composite with pink colour wash featuring writer Vincenzo Latronico and a copy of the book, Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin

First person
Opinion

Vincenzo Latronico: ‘Little Eyes reveals the ways our lives are both harmed and enriched by digital innovation’

Chris Power seated at a table

First person

How to read like a Booker Prize judge – according to Chris Power

A large group of people pose for a photo holding copies of the same book

First person

How we built a book club community – and how you can too

How to organise your bookshelves

First person

Shelf control: How to organise your bookshelves

Black and white photo of Kazuo Ishiguro, writing at his desk.

First person

A crash course in novel writing: how Kazuo Ishiguro wrote The Remains of the Day in a month

12 of the best page-turners from the Booker Prizes library

First person
Long read

What I learnt from reading and ranking every Booker Prize-winning book

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe delivers the Booker Prize 2023 keynote speech

First person

'Books took me to another world': how fiction offered Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe a literary lifeline

Paul Murray on Thomas Pynchon

First person
Long read

Paul Murray on Thomas Pynchon: ‘His vision of the future feels more prescient every day’

Sarah Bernstein on Marie Ndiaye

First person
Long read

Sarah Bernstein on Marie NDiaye: ‘Her characters and settings remain opaque, they keep their secrets’

Paul Harding on Shakespeare

First person
Long read

Paul Harding on Shakespeare’s villains: ‘I want my characters to wrestle with their best and worst impulses’

Hilary Mantel 2014

First person

Hilary Mantel: How I came to write Wolf Hall

Hilary Mantel hugs Nicholas Pearson on winning the Booker Prize 2012

Long read
First person

'Suddenly she was into her stride': Nicholas Pearson on publishing Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall

Robot using typewriter

First person
Long read

Why AI will never supplant human novelists – or win the Booker Prize

Max Porter on The Vegetarian

First person

Max Porter on publishing The Vegetarian: ‘Everyone agreed that this was an important book’

Sara Collins The Long Song teaser

First person

Sara Collins on Andrea Levy: She changed our minds about history

The Long Song by Andrea Levy

First person

The Long Song by Andrea Levy, in the author’s own words

Georgi Gospodinov, author of Time Shelter, shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2023

First person

Georgi Gospodinov's Time Shelter playlist: the prize-winning novel in 12 songs