Elissa Soave is both an avid reader and an author. Her brilliant debut novel Ginger and Me is a coming-of-age mystery that is also a love-letter to her hometown of Uddingston.

The novel was shortlisted for the Saltire Society's Scottish First Book of the Year Award 2023, and film rights of the book have been sold to Mother Pictures.

We discuss her journey to landing her first agent and publishing deal, books which she loves and the ones which have shaped her life.

The authors and books we mention include:

• The Change by Kirsten Miller
• The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton
• Octavia Bright's memoir This Ragged Grace
• Briony Gordon's Glorious Rock Bottom
• Susannah Constantine's Ready for Absolutely Nothing
• Colin Walsh's Kala
• Complicit by Winnie Lee
• Yellowface by R.F. Kuang