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Dolly Alderton

Author Guide

Books Written by Dolly Alderton

Alderton built her name as a Sunday Times dating columnist and podcast host before her 2018 memoir Everything I Know About Love turned her into one of the defining millennial voices on friendship, love, and growing up in your twenties. Her prose is confessional and sharply funny, unafraid to make herself the butt of the joke, which is a large part of why the book connected so widely.

Everything I Know About Love remains the essential starting point and the book most people mean when they say they love Alderton. Ghosts and Good Material extend her voice into fiction, still built around the same messy, painfully specific romantic material.

By Lisanne Swart · 4 books · Memoir & Contemporary Fiction · Updated August 2026

Quick answer

Dolly Alderton is best known for the memoir Everything I Know About Love (2018), followed by the novels Ghosts (2020) and Good Material (2023), and the advice collection Dear Dolly (2022). Everything I Know About Love is the essential starting point.


01
MemoirStart here

Everything I Know About Love

Dolly Alderton · 2018

Alderton’s bestselling debut memoir, told in short chapters tracing her twenties — bad dates, chaotic flatshares, and above all the friendships that mattered more than any romance. Shortlisted for the National Book Awards in the Autobiography category.

The book that made her name and remains her most widely read work — later adapted into a BBC and Peacock television series she wrote and produced herself.

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02
Contemporary Fiction

Ghosts

Dolly Alderton · 2020

Alderton’s fiction debut follows Nina, a 32-year-old food writer navigating modern dating apps, a father’s early-onset dementia, and a relationship that vanishes without explanation — the ‘ghosting’ of the title.

Takes the same voice and preoccupations as her memoir — millennial romance, family, friendship — and moves them into fiction, with real weight added by the dementia storyline.

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03
Contemporary Fiction

Good Material

Dolly Alderton · 2023

A novel told from the perspective of Andy, a struggling comedian processing a breakup, with the final chapters unexpectedly shifting to his ex-girlfriend Jen’s point of view to complicate everything the reader thought they understood.

Notable for its structural gamble — telling most of the book from a man’s perspective on heartbreak before flipping the lens, a device widely discussed on publication.

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04
Essays · Advice

Dear Dolly: On Love, Life and Friendship

Dolly Alderton · 2022

A collection drawn from Alderton’s agony-aunt column for The Sunday Times Style section, offering advice on relationships, friendship, and self-doubt in the same candid, funny voice as her other work.

A good pick for readers who want Alderton’s voice in shorter, more directly practical doses rather than a sustained memoir or novel.

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Watch: Unpacking Heartbreak, Love and Timelines With Dolly Alderton

Dolly Alderton discusses Everything I Know About Love, Good Material, and how her relationship to heartbreak and timelines has evolved across her books.


Where to start with Dolly Alderton

If you want her defining book

Everything I Know About Love remains her most widely read and beloved work.

If you want her fiction

Good Material is her most structurally ambitious novel, with a late perspective shift that recontextualizes the whole story.

If you want shorter doses of her voice

Dear Dolly collects her advice column work in bite-sized form.

Frequently asked questions about Dolly Alderton’s books

How many books has Dolly Alderton written?

Dolly Alderton has written four books: the memoir Everything I Know About Love (2018), the novel Ghosts (2020), the advice collection Dear Dolly (2022), and the novel Good Material (2023).

What is the best Dolly Alderton book to start with?

Everything I Know About Love. It’s her breakout memoir and the book most responsible for her reputation.

Is Everything I Know About Love a true story?

Yes. It’s a memoir recounting Alderton’s own experiences through her twenties — friendships, dating, and growing up — later adapted into a BBC and Peacock television series.

Written by Lisanne Swart

Lisanne curates books for curious readers at lisanneswart.com, publishing original reading lists, author deep-dives, and honest recommendations since 2021. Read more about Lisanne.


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