Mhairi McFarlane Books in Order

If you want her classic friends-to-lovers romcom: You Had Me At Hello → After Hello.
If you love smart office romances and fake dating: If I Never Met You → Cover Story.
If you prefer friendship stories with big feelings: Last Night / Just Last Night → Between Us.
If you like messy life-makeover plots: It’s Not Me, It’s You → Who’s That Girl? → Mad About You.
If you want to follow Edie and Elliot’s arc: Who’s That Girl? → You Belong with Me.

Mhairi McFarlane writes contemporary romantic comedies that live in the gap between big feelings and everyday life. Born in 1976 in Falkirk, Scotland, she moved to England when she was young, grew up around Nottingham, and studied English Language and Literature at Manchester University.

Her first love was always stories, but she started out in journalism rather than fiction. After university she joined the Nottingham Post, working her way through jobs as trainee reporter, beat reporter, feature writer and columnist, learning how to write fast, listen closely and talk to just about anyone. Long days chasing quotes and filing to tight deadlines gave her a strong sense of timing, which later fed straight into her dialogue on the page.

By her early thirties she could feel herself stalling. The long held plan to jump from local papers to a national newsroom no longer appealed, yet she could not quite imagine leaving journalism either. A request to write a Bridget Jones style advertorial about single life in Nottingham, plus a grim airport display of glossy romantic comedies that did not look much like her or her friends, nudged her toward trying a novel of her own.

At 31 she left the paper, traded a steady salary for years of scraping by, and wrote in the gaps between freelance work. Out of that stretch of stubbornness came You Had Me At Hello, a romantic comedy about a court reporter whose university best friend walks back into her life and upends everything she thought was settled.

It turned out to be the right risk.

Published in 2012, You Had Me At Hello became a breakout ebook hit for her publisher, won a major award for contemporary romantic fiction, and was translated widely, introducing readers in many countries to her mix of sharp jokes and emotional honesty.

Since then she has written a steady run of novels, all with the same instinct for humour laced with real stakes. Books like Here’s Looking At You, It’s Not Me, It’s You, Who’s That Girl?, Don’t You Forget About Me, If I Never Met You, Last Night / Just Last Night, Mad About You, Between Us, You Belong with Me and Cover Story explore everything from school bullying and internet pile ons to workplace politics, toxic relationships, grief and the slow work of starting over.

Her characters are usually funny, flawed people in their thirties, trying to make sense of love, friendship and family while holding down imperfect jobs in recognisable British cities.

Place matters in her work. She returns again and again to Nottingham and Manchester, filling them with messy flats, crowded pubs and awkward office parties rather than glamorous fantasy settings, and letting big turning points unfold in very normal streets.

Alongside the novels she has written TV and culture pieces, contributed to the writers’ room on the fifth series of the spy drama Slow Horses, and kept a foot in journalism even while building a full time fiction career.

McFarlane lives in Sherwood, Nottingham with her partner and a cat, walks a lot to untangle plot knots, and cheerfully explains that her Scottish first name is pronounced ‘Vah ree’ whenever readers ask.