- Nominated for the 2026 Carnegie Medal for Writing
- A LoveReading Book of the Year 2025
‘I suspect that in Soho anything can happen and frequently does.’
1960 is knocking on the door, and eighteen-year-old Margaret ‘Birdy’ Arbuthnot, presently of Surbiton, wants more than her current existence in the dull suburbs. She wants to LIVE – in capital letters! Could Soho, with its bright lights and dark corridors, hold the key to a life more novel-like and less… Surrey? (Even if Mummy thinks it is a square mile of vice, full of men with overly shiny shoes.)
At the cusp of the new year, Birdy resolves to only say ‘yes’ to everything for the next twelve months. She can’t possibly realise that her biggest ‘yes’ will launch her directly into the London orbit of the aristocratic Mannering family, and transform her life into one worth writing novels about.
The joyfully funny companion novel to A Calamity of Mannerings, by five-times Carnegie-nominated and UK #1 bestselling author Joanna Nadin.
‘Readers who like it will love it fiercely, living and breathing its characters and returning to them like old friends.’ (Just Imagine)
‘Told in entertaining and brilliantly witty diary form, this is a gem of a novel that explores the glamour and tribulations of the early swinging sixties through the eyes of a spirited and genuinely loveable protagonist.‘ (Culturefly)
‘Warm, charming, smart and funny with gorgeous characters and a dream Soho setting. I could have kept reading it forever.’ (Keris Fox)
‘What can I say about Birdy Arbuthnot’s Year of Yes? YES! Yes to the defiance of predictable and prescribed futures, yes to daring rebelliousness and yes to coming-of-age adventures in Soho! Yes to this extraordinary book, which had me laughing, crying, page-turning… An absolute darling of a story.‘ (Rachel Delahaye)
‘Hilarious and charming and smart.’ (Sheena Wilkinson)
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Joanna Nadin 