“There's this really good line in 'Women in Love' where Ursula says, 'I always thought it was a sin to be unhappy.' And actually I think that's very common, it's what a lot of people feel - that you have an obligation to life to be happy if you can.”

English novelist and writer, contemporary

Rachel Cusk is an English novelist and writer of memoir and other nonfiction. She is known for fiction and prose published across several books, and for a career that has drawn award recognition. Her work has won the Whitbread First Novel Award and the Somerset Maugham Award, and has also been shortlisted and longlisted for prizes including the Governor General's Award and the Booker Prize. Her writing often addresses motherhood, marriage, satire, and more experimental approaches to narrative.