Jessica Stanley's UK debut is an East London-set romcom that acknowledges the challenges of 'happily ever after' in the real world

The novel is set over a turbulent decade, not only in Coralie’s life, following her over her entire 30s, but also in British politics. Political events from 2012 to 2023 included five Prime Ministers and Brexit and these are woven into the narrative of Consider Yourself Kissed. Not least because Adam is a political journalist whose career really takes off. It turns out that Stanley has – or did have – a deep interest in politics.

UK politics “looms so large for Australians”, says Stanley, who changed from English Literature to Politics part way through her degree at Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra. She even took Alastair Campbell’s Diaries to read on holiday years ago (“which is ridiculous”, she says now, laughing, wishing she’d spent her time in the pool instead). In order to make Adam convincing as a political journalist, she needed to immerse herself in the news, something she says she would struggle to do in 2025’s febrile political climate. “I could never write something like that again because I just can’t follow the news. You know, I’m now allergic to the Today programme. I think I have Coralie say that the 2015 election, she didn’t know it at the time, but it was the last normal election. And I sort of feel like that, at some point, perhaps around Brexit, things got unhinged and I was happy to follow the unhinging, but now I can’t be involved.”

Consider Yourself Kissed is Stanley’s first novel to be published in the UK, but in Australia her debut, A Great Hope, was released three years ago. Set around the trade union movement, it had taken her eight years to write, and she poured everything into it – “[It felt like] this was my one shot” – but publication proved to be a bruising experience. It came out in 2022, at the tail end of the pandemic when Australia’s borders were still closed. Stanley did an online launch and it was well reviewed but still. “It was really nice, but equally, it was as if it didn’t happen. So, I was like ‘OK, so publishing a book is not what I expected, should I even try and do this again?’”

She grappled with doubts but then: “I remembered how much I loved writing it, being ‘in’ it, having a place to go in my mind and a secret thing that was for me.” First though, she had to set aside “everything that was kind of ego-related – am I a writer? Can I do this? Do people care about what I have to say? I put that all to one side and I just did it for love and about love.”

She was inspired by the lore that Nancy Mitford wrote the enduring classic The Pursuit of Love in just three months. “I was thinking, what if I could just hype myself up, have a fun day at the desk and that was my job done. You know, instead of torturing myself,” she says, laughing.

At some point, perhaps around Brexit, things got unhinged and I was happy to follow the unhinging, but now I can’t be involved.

She wanted to set Consider Yourself Kissed over a long time frame, and was influenced by Elizabeth Jane Howard’s Cazalet Chronicles, which she re-read over lockdown and found a great comfort. This five book series set over decades shows that crises in life always pass: “They’re gathered around the radio to see if the Second World War is going to happen, then they have to go and cook a meal. It’s nice to have every part of life in a book.”

She was keen too, to write something that readers would take comfort in. “How can I write a comfort read that is genuinely comforting? In that I can only feel comforted by someone who has a full understanding of how bad things can be. I feel like, if someone understands that things can be very bad, then I can receive comfort from them.”

She describes Consider Yourself Kissed as a “grown-up love story” and the love in the novel extends far beyond Coralie and Adam. “It’s family, extended family, families you very carefully create for yourself, friends, people you’re tied to in some way and have to make the best of.”

Stanley has a presence on social media, a strong author website plus Substack and Instagram, and I wonder if she sees this as a prerequisite for a career as a novelist now. “Well, I feel like if I didn’t have my newsletter and my Instagram, no one would have bought my first book. Almost every sale was touched by my Instagram, my newsletter in some way.” But now she is less sure, given the recent changes around moderation by Meta. “I found Instagram and Substack to be the two most thoughtful and friendly places online. But now I’m just concerned. I wonder if maybe we’ve had the heyday of how good social media can be, and maybe it will be time for us to retreat into our caves a bit.”

Or indeed retreat into a comforting book. Stanley hopes this message shines through Consider Yourself Kissed: “It doesn’t matter who you love or who loves you, or where the care is coming from. It’s the care and the love that makes life worth living. Even in really difficult times.”