Why we related to Ghosts by Dolly Alderton and how it became the inspiration for our podcast

Ghosts by Dolly Alderton was one of our favourite reads last year. Kath devoured it in an afternoon and quickly ordered it for Elle for her birthday. The book then sparked many, many conversations between us about dating apps and modern dating in general.

The novel delves into the life of Nina, a 32-year-old woman living in London that gets ghosted, big time. It’s not just an after-three-dates kind of vibe but it is a brutal and honest story of how horrendous ghosting can be. Alderton captures the pure evilness (and I do not use this term lightly) of being ghosted in an extremely funny, heart-warming and emotional way and the novel is extremely relatable about self-assuring.

At the time of reading, we both got ‘ghosted’. This, being possibly the most common thing that can happen to a single millennial in London, meant that we both felt a strong affinity to the novel as we were reading. Our own experiences with dating are varied and different but the one thing we do have in common is that we’ve been ghosted by men from dating apps, both in equally brutal ways. 

The thing is about ghosting is that it’s not the end of the situationship or even the nature of the rejection, it’s the fact that a person who barely took up space before now occupies space in your brain you never knew you had. Every single spare moment of the day can become a thought about them. What’s happened? Are they ok? Did you say something on the last date? Did they die? But, deep down you know that they’re probably just an idiot and embodying the classic arsehole nature of somebody who thinks it’s OK to ghost another individual. 

After gassing about the novel and, as a result, discussing in some depth the culture of dating apps as a millennial in London, we quickly came to realise we had quite a lot to say on the matter. After a few hefty voice notes back and forth, the idea for book(ish) was formed…

A channel for the two of us to gass about our favourite reads whilst also talking about all the other stuff going on in our millennial lives from dating apps to the best coffee shops in town (and of course some much more serious matters like race and privilege).  

A few months later, episodes into double figures, a whole lot time more spent chatting about books… ish and we’re launching our website with even more book(ish) content on, we hope you enjoy!