About Me

I’m a writer of contemporary fiction.  My first novel, set in present day London and 1970s Brooklyn, is nearing completion and I’ve started a second book.   I also enjoy writing short fiction: one of my stories was shortlisted for The Asham Award 2012 and another was recently published in the Rattle Tales 2 anthology.

I am a big believer in collaborative approaches to creative writing and I exchange/critique work with several other writers on an ongoing basis.  I also belong to a long-established and highly opinionated book group.

Originally from Salisbury, Wiltshire, I studied Modern Languages at Oxford before moving to London where I’m the lone female in a household consisting of my bike-mad doctor husband and two sons aged 15 and 11.  Lots of mud and yelling at sport on TV.  It’s OK, I have a room of my own which is off-limits to the likes of them.

You can contact me via Twitter @isabelcostello or through the comments section on any post here.

About the Literary Sofa

I was recently interviewed by Claire King on the subject of book blogging and my reading habits – you can read the post here.

I started my blog in September 2011, inspired by my love of reading and talking about good novels – it’s what I do all the time ‘in real life’.  To my amazement, it got 20,000 hits in its first year.  Here you’ll find in-depth reviews, listings, guest author posts and features about fiction from the perspective of both readers and writers.  I hope you find something for your ‘To Be Read’ list and I look forward to hearing what excites you in the world of books.  This blog has seen some great debates already and I hope there will be many more.  Thanks for reading….