Hi everyone!

It was such a delight to meet so many of you on my recent Australian tour, and to talk about Darling Girls with you all. As I said on my Instagram (multiple times), I’ve never felt so loved and held by my reader community, and I will never forget the support I felt in every room.

At the launch in Melbourne, I was interviewed by my good friend Lisa Ireland, who played a hilarious Sex and the City-inspired video of us with our other good friends Jane Cockram and Kirsty Manning (I’m the Carrie in the group, mostly due to my tutu wearing and penchant for pontificating on all the questions of life). My assistant Amy Lovat flew to Melbourne for the day to surprise me, and my publishing team showed up with matching hot-pink ‘Darling Girl’ t-shirts. From there I dotted about Australia chatting about Darling Girls with my wonderful friends Mia Freedman, Lise and Sarah, Frances Whiting, Amy Lovat and Jane Harper. You know something funny? Every single one of my interviewer-friends commented on how my readers all seemed like they were my friends, to which I replied - that’s because they are.

So thank YOU, dear readers, for your love and support of me and my books over the years. I wouldn’t be here without you.

Anyway, onwards! I cannot BELIEVE that I’m about to make a series of Christmas gift recommendations to you, but here we are. It’s 15 November, which is around the time many of us start panicking that the silly season is almost upon us. So, here’s a round-up of gift ideas.

Let me know your other book recommendations on Instagram or Facebook!

Sally x

What could be a better Christmas present than a book? This year, I’ve gone to the trouble of curating a list of books for every bookworm in your life.

Hello Stranger by Katherine Center is a gorgeous comfort read that follows artist Sadie, who has been diagnosed with temporary facial blindness, when she falls in love with two very different men. Buy here.

Happy Place by Emily Henry is the queen of rom-com’s latest book, following Harriet and Wyn, the perfect couple who actually broke up six months ago but need to pretend to be together to get through a vacation weekend with their best friends. Buy here.

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese is an Oprah’s Book Club pick, set on the Malabar Coast of South India, following three generations of a family that each share a peculiar affliction: someone always drowns. Buy here.

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano is a gorgeous, moving story of four sisters in a chaotic, loving household who embrace one of their new boyfriends: a boy with a tragic past. Buy here.

Mistakes and Other Lovers by Amy Lovat follows 23-year-old El, who has just put a bomb under her life by breaking up with her high school boyfriend and embarking on a toxic, secret affair with the soon-to-be-married youth pastor of the local evangelical church. Juicy, compelling and so well written. Buy here.

Something Bad is Going to Happen by Jessie Stephens is a raw portrayal of mental illness for young people, following two best friends Adella and Jake and their different experiences of depression and anxiety, as well as the impact it has on their families and friends — heartbreaking and authentic. Buy here.

The House That Joy Built by Holly Ringland is a glorious non-fiction offering from bestselling author Holly Ringland, which shares honest truths about the kinds of fear we face as creatives, and how to overcome them, gently. Buy here.

The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron is an iconic, bestselling book about the path to creativity, which is technically a twelve-week course but can also just be dipped in and out of through various chapters. Buy here.

You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith is an unflinching and beautiful look at marriage, heartbreak, divorce and piecing yourself back together in the aftermath of loss. Buy here.

I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy is a book I could not put down. The author tells the harrowing (and sometimes hilarious) story of her upbringing as a child actor and the behaviour of her unwell mother. Buy here.

Yellowface by Rebecca F Kuang is the book that took the publishing world by storm this year — it’s unputdownable and explores what happens when one author steals another’s manuscript after her untimely death. Buy here.

The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan is an explosive novel about a young mother with Chinese immigrant parents who has one lapse in judgement and lands herself in a government reform program. Buy here.

Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth is my latest book available in Australia/NZ right now, following three sisters who grew up in foster care together and have been called back to the farmhouse of their childhood, where bones have been discovered. Are they victims or villains? Buy here.

I’m funny on Instagram.