Kissing Emma was inspired by Lord Nelson's mistress

Shappi Khorsandi has written a novel for young adults about a vulnerable young woman and the men who try to take advantage of her.

Kissing Emma was inspired by Emma Hamilton, Lord Nelson's mistress, who used her sexuality to rise from scullery maid to nobility. But Khorsandi has previously argued there was more to her than the seductress history has portrayed her as, both in a  stand-up show, Mistress and Misfit, and a Radio 4 Great Lives programme.

Blurb for the new book, out in September, describes Khorsandi’s modern-day Emma as ‘a beautiful, but vulnerable, young woman in a world obsessed with fame and fortune’.

It adds: ‘Emma and her mother are down on their luck. They're taking turns sleeping on the sofa in her nan's tiny flat - and desperately trying to come up with an escape plan.

‘Emma is struggling with her family, struggling at school where the girls are bitchy towards her and the boys only seem to want one thing, and struggling with never having enough money for anything, ever. Just as she's contemplating quitting school to get a real job, she meets two men who convince her that she has a shot at modelling. But their motives are far from innocent, and Emma is soon pulled into a dark world. And then she meets Con, who is rich, handsome and so romantic! Has Emma's luck finally changed?’

Khorsandi's debut novel, Nina Is Not OK,  was published in 2016 and also focussed on the coming of age of a teenage girl, and considered issues of consent and addiction. She also published the memoir A Beginner's Guide To Acting English in 2009.

Kissing Emma will be published by Hachette Children's Group on September 2.

Published: 29 Mar 2021