Elizabeth Zott is a chemist, and a pretty great chemist at that, but a series of enraging and tragic events leave her with no choice but to take a job hosting a TV cookery show. However, it comes as no surprise, having come to know Elizabeth, that this is not going to wind up like your average cooking show. 

I listened to this as an audiobook, perfectly read by Miranda Raison, and absolutely loved my time with Elizabeth Zott, who is as smart and razor-sharp as she is passionate and (sometimes unintentionally) witty. It’s not just Elizabeth I loved, so many of the supporting characters were well developed and engaging. Her relationship with Calvin, an equally brilliant chemist but one who has achieved a fame much harder for a woman of the time to achieve (it’s the mid 50s after all and a woman’s true merits are to be found in the home not in a lab), is delightful, especially in their tendency to miscommunicate and feed each other white lies with the absolute best of intentions, all humorously revealed to us by our omniscient narrator. Her kindly neighbour Harriet Sloane, the good Dr Mason and exasperated Walter Pine are also all brilliantly drawn, while Bonnie Garmus conjures a mean bad guy in several men who are aggressive, misogynistic and cowardly, the exact kind of men who would have something to fear in someone as brilliant and ballsy as Elizabeth. 

I loved how that very sense of agency that propels Elizabeth through life is something she ends up instilling in those around her too, in her immediate life and through the TV screen. Not to mention the many quirky, tongue-in-cheek and  laugh-out-loud moments; only Elizabeth Zott could learn to understand, and then excel at, rowing by means of scientific equations.

Exploring themes of sexism, in particular in the workplace, and the expectations placed on women of the time; of women who walk their own path and aren’t afraid to defy conventions; of agency and the potential brought about by self-belief; this was a highly entertaining, heartwarming and hopeful book despite the darker themes explored.

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Lessons in Chemistry was published by Doubleday in 2022.

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Bonnie Garmus is a copywriter and creative director who has worked widely in the fields of technology, medicine and education. She is an open-water swimmer, a rower, and mother to two wonderful daughters. Born in California and most recently from Seattle, she currently lives in London with her husband and her dog, 99. Her first novel, LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY, is a No.1 Sunday Times and No. 1 New York Times bestseller. It was voted Hay Festival Book of the Year by readers, won the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Debut Novel and was shortlisted for the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize. Translated into more than thirty-five languages, it is being adapted as an Apple TV series starring Brie Larson.