In the wake of our fabulous June lit fest, Margate Bookie has been chatting to Daisy Buchanan about her amazing new novel and her amazing event.
What’s Careering all about?
Careering is a comedy about what happens when you do a job you love, but you’re starting to realise it’s never going to love you back. Imogen, the eternal intern, has just scored her dream job and thinks her boss Harri must have it all figured out – but they are both struggling and spiralling, and they have to join forces and rebel.
How did the idea for Careering come about?
I started my writing career as a magazine intern, doing various odd jobs in order to keep body and soul together – I felt like work and ambition were the great big unrequited love of my life and it seemed really timely to explore the fine line between bringing passion to your work and being exploited by bosses and systems who can take advantage of that passion.
Who were you chatting with?
My brilliant friend, Laura Tait, a fantastic author and journalist who’s seen me through the freelance trenches. (Her first book, The Best Thing That Never Happened to Me with writing partner Jimmy Rice, is amazing.)
I have a love/hate relationship with social media, but I am very much on it – @NotRollergirl on Twitter and @thedaisybee on Instagram. If you’re curious in writers and writing, I’d recommend my podcast You’re Booked, available on Apple, Acast, Spotify etc – we’re on hiatus at the moment but we’ll be back soon. We’ve got over a hundred interviews with authors ranging from Dolly Alderton and Richard Ayoade to Nick Hornby and Susannah Clark – all talking about my favourite subject. How the books they love inspire them as writers. I also have two limited podcast series, Daisy Is Insatiable and Daisy Is Careering, exploring the themes from both of my novels.
I do quite a lot of festivals, interviews and events, so if you missed the Bookie and want to come along to the next one, I’ll be announcing them on social. (The Idler Festival and the Times Life Lessons Festival are coming in Summer 2022!) And at the time of writing, I’m finishing my third novel, which is due for release early Summer 2023. I’m not sure I’m officially allowed to announce the title yet, but if you’re a sleuth you might be able to Google it. (It is available for preorder!)