I am a freelance writer based in London. I write interviews, book reviews, features and comment pieces for newspapers such as  The Financial Times, The Telegraph, The ipaper, and The Times, and magazines including The TLS, The Spectator, Konfekt, Prospect and The Gentlewoman.

Interviewing authors is always a highlight. Recent favourites include favourite Sayaka Murata, of Convenience Store Woman fame, who I met in Frankfurt for The Gentlewoman and Percival Everett, who told me about his brilliant latest, James, for the ipaper. I visited Bath to write about Persephone Books –  a must read for any Dorothy Whipple fans, or soon-to-be fans. And things got personal for this review of Marianne Brooker’s Intervals, which is about assisted dying, for Prospect. Prefer audio? Here’s a podcast I recorded with Andrew O’Hagan about his state-of-the-nation doorstopper for Intelligence Squared. 

It’s not all about books. I went to Mongolia in 2023 to write about a new show headed to London for the Telegraph Magazine and am working on a feature about the State Ballet of Georgia, which is performing Swan Lake at London’s Coliseum in August 2024.

I spend most of my spare time reading, often something new but not always. 2024 highlights – so far – include Rita Bullwinkle’s Headshot; The Vulnerables by Sigrid Nunez, a new-to-me author (How?); A Change of Climate by Hilary Mantel, Elizabeth Jane Howard’s The Long View and Lara Pawson’s Spent Light. 

Before freelancing, I was a senior writer at the Independent on Sunday and the Independent (until the print titles folded in 2016), covering everything from retail for the business desk to trends in food and more. We spent 2017/18 on a family sabbatical in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where I took writing classes at the University of Michigan.

To commission me, email susiemesure@gmail.com

Say hello on Bluesky or Instagram, where I write about books @definitelynotabookclub

Or find me in Peckham for one of my cryptic club and pub meet ups. Email for dates.

And happy reading.