Went to London, Took the Dog: The Diary of a 60-Year-Old Runaway

National Book Award–winning British novelist Stibbe (One Day I Shall Astonish the World) shares experiences from her return to London at age 60, after 40 years away. She had been raising a family in Cornwall, England, but now that her two children are at university, she decides she needs an “adult gap year” as she reexamines her life and her relationship with her partner. As Stibbe copes with symptoms of menopause and decisions about her future, her adventures are recounted in diary form with frank humor. She rents a room in London from another novelist, Deborah Moggach, and moves in along with her beloved cockapoo Peggy. While based in London for about a year (2022 to early 2023), she travels around England and Scotland to literary festivals, reconnecting with old friends, many of them also authors or literary-world figures. Reading this memoir is like having a little window into British literary life with Stibbe’s wry, honest voice sharing her adventures with readers.