Victoria Mileson
From online dating to gaslighting, An Evening with Dolly Alderton did not disappoint. Dolly Alderton is an award-winning journalist, podcaster, and bestselling author of Everything I Know About Love. In conversation with Caroline O’Donoghue, thousands gathered on ‘Freedom Day’ at the London Palladium to celebrate the paperback publication of Alderton’s debut novel Ghosts. Despite the disappointment of her few one-star reviews, Ghosts is not about the supernatural. Instead, Nina Dean, a successful food writer in her thirties meets Max, who says on their first date that he is going to marry her. It feels like everything is falling into place but of course, it’s not that easy. Nina Dean navigates the complex world of fading friendships, ex-boyfriends moving on, a mother in a mid-life makeover and a father who is slowly being taken away from her by dementia. Dolly danced onto the stage glowing- not just from her sequin-covered dress, I might add. In person events were back, and everyone was overjoyed to hear what she had to say. Dolly greeted us with “Those are my girls!”, and after so long, it was refreshing to belong once again to a collective.
Caroline O’Donoghue was the perfect host for the evening. She and Dolly worked together flawlessly and it in no way felt like an interview. It was a conversation between friends, and you wanted to hear what they both could offer about navigating love in the modern world. Having not come across Caroline’s work before, I found myself as intrigued by her as I was Dolly. Their evident close friendship made for a more intimate discussion on the likes of bad ex-boyfriends and dating faux pas. From reading Everything I Know About Love and listening to her various podcasts, Dolly’s readers are aware of her enlightening social commentary. Dolly notices the things you don’t realise about people. She makes amazing comparisons that highlight how strange and endearing people can be. For example, Dolly recommended becoming a David Attenborough of dating to get through the disappointing dates that don’t deserve your Friday and Saturday nights. Caroline then likened Dolly’s most recent successful date to working for NASA and as if they had been waiting for their man to land on the moon. Following the ideas from Everything I Know About Love, celebrating your friend’s successes and friendship remained central to the night.“Their evident close friendship made for a more intimate discussion on the likes of bad ex-boyfriends and dating faux pas.”
Dolly shared her sage advice on friendship, publishing and even “why are men?” to her mainly female audience of twenty and thirty somethings. While it can be easy to feel segregated from the interviewer and interviewee as an audience member, in this case, the audience was very much part of the event too. Any mention of Farly, Dolly Alderton’s best friend, was met with cheers even though we only knew her character from reading Alderton’s memoir. There was an understanding between the audience, Dolly and Caroline. Well, until the snog, marry, avoid debate of Sex and The City characters, but we can skip over that. Nonetheless, the interactive Q&A section brought home Dolly’s key ideas on friendship and femininity. Dolly Alderton’s relatable wisdom manifested itself throughout the evening. Her voice is recognisable across her writing as well as on stage and she is unapologetically herself (as she should be). An Evening with Dolly Alderton wholly presented Ghosts as her book told in her voice. The paperback of Dolly Alderton’s debut novel Ghosts can be purchased here.“There was an understanding between the audience, Dolly and Caroline.”
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Victoria Mileson
Victoria is a 20 year old journalist and Modern Languages student at the University of Nottingham. She loves writing book-related pieces and exploring issues in society.