Author Guide · Dark Comedy & Memoir
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Bella Mackie's first book started on a sofa. Divorced at the end of her twenties, she pulled on a pair of trainers and went for a run that barely lasted, then went out again the next day. Her first novel starts in a prison cell, where a woman who has killed six members of her father's family is serving time for the one death she didn't cause. That one sold more than a million copies. This page has all five Bella Mackie books in the order they were published, from the running memoir to her 2026 novel Who Can Blame Her, and where to start.
By Lisanne Swart · 5 books · 3 novels · Female authors · 2018–2026 · Updated September 2026
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Quick answer
Bella Mackie has written five books: three novels, How to Kill Your Family (2021), What a Way to Go (2024) and Who Can Blame Her (2026), and two nonfiction books, the memoir Jog On (2018) and the Jog On Journal (2019). How to Kill Your Family is her best-known book, with more than a million copies sold and a Netflix series in development, and it is the best place to start. Her novels are standalone dark comedies, not a series, so they can be read in any order.
Watch: Bella Mackie, the Waterstones interview
Quick facts about Bella Mackie
- Born
- 28 July 1983, London
- Birth name
- Isabella Kathleen Rusbridger
- Lives
- Kentish Town, north London, where she grew up
- Parents
- Alan Rusbridger, former editor-in-chief of The Guardian, and Lindsay Mackie
- Married
- Greg James, BBC Radio 1 presenter, since 2018
- Journalism
- The Guardian, Vice and Vogue
- Books
- Five, 2018–2026: three novels and two nonfiction
- Publisher
- HarperCollins UK: The Borough Press and William Collins
- Known for
- How to Kill Your Family (2021), more than a million copies sold
- On screen
- How to Kill Your Family, commissioned by Netflix in 2024 with Anya Taylor-Joy
- Newest book
- Who Can Blame Her, July 2026
- Also
- Judge of the Women's Prize for Fiction, 2023
All 5 Bella Mackie Books, in Order
Jog On: How Running Saved My Life
Divorced and struggling with her mental health, Mackie could barely get off the sofa until she put on trainers and went for a run. The first attempt did not last long, but she went out again the next day, and the day after that. Jog On sets that story alongside research and conversations with doctors, psychologists and athletes about how exercise can ease anxiety and depression. It was a Sunday Times bestseller.
Worth reading for a much more personal, vulnerable register than her later, darker novels, and it is funny about the things she refused to give up along the way.
— LisanneJog On Journal: A Practical Guide to Getting Up and Running
A companion workbook to Jog On, written to get readers exercising for their minds rather than their bodies.
How to Kill Your Family
Grace Bernard is in Limehouse prison for a death she did not cause. The murders she did commit, six members of the wealthy Artemis family who abandoned her mother, she got away with, and she sets them all down in a confession written from her cell. It became a #1 Sunday Times bestseller, spent 47 weeks in the paperback top ten, sold more than a million copies and was shortlisted for Debut Book of the Year at the 2022 British Book Awards. Netflix commissioned a series adaptation in 2024, with Anya Taylor-Joy attached to star.
This is the one to start with. Grace is a narrator you should not like and cannot stop listening to, and underneath the jokes there is real anger about class and about who gets to be rich.
— LisanneWhat a Way to Go
Anthony Wistern, a self-made finance boss with a Cotswold manor, a French chateau and four grown children, dies at his own 60th birthday party. Stuck in a waiting room in the afterlife until he remembers how he died, he watches the people left behind: his wife Olivia, who is not exactly grieving, children more worried about the money than about him, and a true-crime sleuth with her own history with the family. It was a Sunday Times bestseller and was nominated for two CrimeFest awards in 2025.
Read this after How to Kill Your Family. The same appetite for skewering the very rich, told this time by three narrators instead of one.
— LisanneWho Can Blame Her
Diana Leyland has climbed the social ladder by marrying a man on each rung, and all three of her husbands died rather quickly. Her next target is David Farrand, with a five-storey house in Hampstead and money to match. The one obstacle is his daughter Cat, who is suspicious of Diana from the start and determined to expose her past. Published by The Borough Press in July 2026.
How Bella Mackie Writes: Murder as Social Comedy
Every Mackie novel is built around a woman and a lot of money. Grace wants the Artemis fortune and the family attached to it gone. Olivia Wistern finds her husband dead in the lake and starts thinking about her life as a free woman. Diana Leyland treats marriage as a staircase. The victims are rich, the jokes are at their expense, and the narrators are rarely sorry.
There is a point under the comedy. In an interview with The Irish Times, Mackie described How to Kill Your Family as a reaction to the way men who murder women are admired, while the women they kill barely register. Grace is the reverse: a woman who kills, tells you exactly how, and expects to be admired for it. What a Way to Go takes aim at the audience as well, through a true-crime sleuth who wants a hit podcast out of a death.
The voice was already there in Jog On, a book about anxiety that is also funny about the booze, cigarettes and ice cream Mackie had no intention of giving up.
Bella Mackie's Books in Order of Publication
Nonfiction: Jog On: How Running Saved My Life (2018) and Jog On Journal (2019).
Novels: How to Kill Your Family (2021), What a Way to Go (2024) and Who Can Blame Her (2026).
The novels are not a series. Each one has its own cast, so you can read them in any order, although reading them in publication order shows how she moved from one narrator to several.
Where to Start with Bella Mackie
If you have never read her
→ How to Kill Your Family (2021). Her breakout novel, and the one most readers mean when they mention her.
If you loved How to Kill Your Family
→ What a Way to Go (2024), another very rich family and another suspicious death.
If you want her newest book
→ Who Can Blame Her (2026).
If you want her personal side
→ Jog On (2018), a memoir about anxiety and running, then the Jog On Journal if you want to try it yourself. My list of books about mental health goes further.
If you like families with something to hide
→ My books about family secrets list.
Frequently asked questions about Bella Mackie's books
How many books has Bella Mackie written?
Bella Mackie has written five books: the novels How to Kill Your Family (2021), What a Way to Go (2024) and Who Can Blame Her (2026), and the nonfiction books Jog On: How Running Saved My Life (2018) and Jog On Journal (2019).
What are Bella Mackie's books in order?
In order of publication: Jog On (2018), Jog On Journal (2019), How to Kill Your Family (2021), What a Way to Go (2024) and Who Can Blame Her (2026).
What other books has Bella Mackie written besides How to Kill Your Family?
Two more novels, What a Way to Go (2024) and Who Can Blame Her (2026), and two nonfiction books: Jog On (2018), a memoir about using running to cope with anxiety, and its companion workbook, Jog On Journal (2019).
Which Bella Mackie book should I read first?
How to Kill Your Family (2021). It is her best-known novel and the clearest introduction to her dark, comic voice. Her novels are standalone, so you can read the others in any order afterwards.
What is Bella Mackie's new book?
Who Can Blame Her, published by The Borough Press in July 2026. Diana Leyland has outlived three husbands and has her eye on a fourth, the wealthy David Farrand, but his daughter Cat is determined to expose her.
Are Bella Mackie's novels a series?
No. How to Kill Your Family, What a Way to Go and Who Can Blame Her are standalone novels with different characters. They share a subject, wealthy families and suspicious deaths, but not a storyline.
Who is Bella Mackie?
Bella Mackie is an English author and journalist, born Isabella Rusbridger in London in 1983. She has written for The Guardian, Vice and Vogue, and is the author of the memoir Jog On and the novels How to Kill Your Family, What a Way to Go and Who Can Blame Her.
Is Bella Mackie married to Greg James?
Yes. Bella Mackie married Greg James, the BBC Radio 1 DJ and television presenter, in 2018.
How old is Bella Mackie?
Bella Mackie was born on 28 July 1983, which makes her 43 in September 2026.
Why is she called Bella Mackie and not Rusbridger?
She was born Isabella Kathleen Rusbridger, the daughter of the former Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger and Lindsay Mackie. She writes under her mother's surname, which keeps her work distinct from her father's.
What is How to Kill Your Family about?
Grace Bernard, the illegitimate daughter of a very rich man, sets out to kill his whole family in revenge for how they treated her mother. She gets away with six murders, then ends up in prison for a death she did not cause, and writes her confession from her cell.
Is How to Kill Your Family being made into a TV series?
Yes. Netflix commissioned a series adaptation of How to Kill Your Family in 2024, with Anya Taylor-Joy attached to star.
Is How to Kill Your Family based on a true story?
No, it is fiction. In an interview with The Irish Times, Mackie described it as a response to the way men who murder women are admired while the women they kill are barely remembered.
What is What a Way to Go about?
Anthony Wistern, a wealthy finance boss, dies at his own 60th birthday party. The novel is told by Anthony from the afterlife, by his wife Olivia, and by a true-crime sleuth investigating the death, while his four grown children worry mostly about their inheritance.
Footnotes
- Bella Mackie — Wikipedia
- Alan Rusbridger — Wikipedia
- Jog On: How Running Saved My Life — William Collins
- Who Can Blame Her — HarperCollins UK
- What a Way to Go, review and publication details — Compulsive Readers
- Anya Taylor-Joy to Star in How to Kill Your Family Series at Netflix — Variety, 2024
- Bella Mackie interview — The Irish Times
- Bella Mackie, bibliography and award nominations — Fantastic Fiction
Bibliography last verified 10 September 2026.
Nothing here was suggested by a machine.
I picked these ten myself,
and the reasons are on the page.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“It's a fantasy, no woman is allowed to be like this anyway.”
— Bella Mackie, to The Irish Times, on How to Kill Your Family
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