Born in Bury, Greater Manchester, in 1978, Emma Jane Unsworth studied English literature at the University of Liverpool and received an MA from Manchester University’s Centre for New Writing. Formerly a journalist and columnist for The Big Issue in the North, Unsworth has published a number of short stories and two novels including 2014’s Animals, which won a Jerwood Fiction Uncovered prize and was adapted as a film in 2019. Her latest novel, Adults, is released by the Borough Press next Thursday.
1. Film
Little Women (dir Greta Gerwig, 2019)
Greta Gerwig is a genius. She’s turned a classic into an utterly modern and surprising period drama. She also captures so many aspects of what it’s like to have a sister, and be a sister: that mix of love and competitiveness; loyalty and punch-ups. I cried so much watching this film that I gave up wiping my eyes and just let the tears roll down my face. The woman next to me had to ask me if I was all right, and I said no, so she gave me a chocolate-covered brazil. I left the cinema an emotional wreck. Honestly, I loved it.
2. App
Night Sky
I’ve started using a stargazing app because my three-year-old has suddenly become obsessed with the planets. I’m so glad because I was running out of fake enthusiasm for dinosaurs and trains, but the cosmos is something I can genuinely get into with gusto. The app is useful because when you hold up your phone to the sky, it tells you what all the stars are called and when the International Space Station is going to cross over, that sort of thing. It also plays quite trippy, proggy music, which is fun.
3. Exhibition
William Blake at Tate Britain
This ends on 2 February so you’ll have to be quick. I love what a rebel Blake was. It’s a huge, atmospheric exhibition. I found myself moved by the last painting - The Ancient of Days – which shows a grey-haired man trying to measure the world with a compass. Blake finished it just before he died and said it was the best painting he’d ever do. Imagine feeling that! I felt really pleased for him. I then went and bought a tote bag with The Ancient of Days on it, which I’m sure is exactly what Blake intended.
4. Book
I Am Sovereign by Nicola Barker
I hadn’t read any Nicola Barker before but this, her 13th novel (13th!) knocked me sideways when I read it recently. It’s so masterful and meta. The narrative style is elegant and frenetic, which suits the story of a house sale that becomes an existential scrum. Nell Zink described it as “Evelyn Waugh on ecstasy” and I think that’s about right. Either that or F Scott Fitzgerald on meth. It’s also nice and short – I’m not a heathen but since having a child I read approximately one novel per year so the short ones feel much more doable.
5. Podcast
How Did We Get Here?
I’m putting a podcast in to make me look young. I wish I listened to more podcasts because whenever I do I enjoy them, although sometimes they are unbearably intimate and it’s like someone is actually in my ear talking to me, which I’m not always keen on. This is an excellent new podcast about family relationships, hosted by Claudia Winkleman and psychologist Dr Tanya Byron. Each episode, a real person comes in with a problem, chats to Winkleman, then has a therapy session with Byron. I could listen to Claudia Winkleman all day. She’s so clever, with a real generosity of spirit.
6. Poem
Ghost Story for Masturbating at Sleepovers by Olivia Gatwood
This poem is from a collection called Life of the Party, published last year. My friend and workwife, Sarah Brocklehurst, the producer who originally optioned Animals, bought it for me for my birthday. Sarah knows my tastes, so let me just say that Gatwood writes about girls and fear and finding ways to articulate our most confusing truths. This particular poem is about secret teenage masturbation. Get this for a line: “One girl slithers out into the dark / And whispers the song of herself.” Wow, right? I like it because it’s true.
