What is the title of your latest release?
WISH YOU WERE HER
What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
Neurodivergent Notting Hill!
How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
Lake Pristine, the fictional small town from my first YA novel was popular with readers and I loved spending time there as a writer. So it felt natural to use it as a continuing location.
Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
Omg, absolutely. In a second. She’s much more calm and collected than I am and I think she would be a good influence, haha. I think she’d also have some great gossip.
What are three words that describe your protagonist?
Compassionate. Talented. Neurodivergent.
What’s something you learned while writing this book?
I think how strongly I feel about women and girls being forced to become role models just for existing. I don’t like how we’re instantly supposed to be media trained to a degree that removes all humanity. All of the imperfections. Marginalized women and girls don’t automatically have to be role models. They deserve to make mistakes and experience life and love without restraint. They deserve messy fun. And they don’t need to fix everything around them.
Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
Always edit afterwards. If I edited while writing, the book would never make it out of the drafts.
What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Pasta.
Describe your writing space/office!
My entirely pink office.
Who is an author you admire?
Juno Dawson. Faridah Abíké-íyímídé. Jason Reynolds.
Is there a book that changed your life?
Of Mice and Men but not for a good reason.
Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be
published)/Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
I was having an argument with my mother over dinner in a restaurant in London. The phone call changed the course of the evening. And my life. I don’t remember what we were arguing about, but I remember that I was right.
What’s your favorite genre to read?
Romance.
What’s your favorite movie?
The Birdcage. I think it’s such a perfect comedy, but it’s also quietly radical. Or loudly radical, given its political context. It was proud, queer love and joy in a culture that rejected LGBTQ people. It’s never preachy. I always see something new when I watch it. I write books about disabled joy because I grew up in an era of “the disabled character has to die” and I’d had enough. Joy is political. Joy is radical. And I say “too swishy?” about forty times a day.
What is your favorite season?
Fall. I’m a Scot and Scotland is always in fall/winter mode. We get about eight days of sunshine. So I love the cool breeze and crisp air.
How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
With family and friends. Growing up autistic meant that birthdays could be a bit of a trial. I like to keep my circle small as a result. I’m throwing a Wicked-themed dinner party this year and I hope people are ready to indulge me because a special interest birthday is something to behold.
What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
I loved Sinners. I’m the biggest Wicked fan on earth. And I’ve binged all of Ali Hazelwood’s books and she really is something else. One of the actors from our television show also has an amazing podcast called Lights, Camera, Neurodiversity and I love that.
What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Seafood.
What do you do when you have free time?
I don’t but if I did, I would find a beach. Or a field. I would try to get to the highlands again. I spend so much time in cities now and I miss Scotland a lot. I’d love to take some short courses at Oxford University as well but it’s about finding the time. And I’d love to go back to New York. I used to live in Hell’s Kitchen and I haven’t been back since becoming an author and screenwriter. I’d like to.
What can readers expect from you next?
I have an adult novel coming out in 2026. It’s called UNAPOLOGETIC LOVE STORY and I’m so nervous about it! I love it but it’s very personal.
An autistic YA homage to The Shop Around the Corner with a pinch of Cyrano, Elle McNicoll's Wish You Were Her is a triumph!
Allegra Brooks is an eighteen year old actress who is secretly autistic. When a journalist publishes a scathing profile on Allegra, she decides to take the summer off in Lake Pristine, to visit her slightly estranged father. There, she befriends the booksellers of Brooks Books and decides to help them plan the popular Lake Pristine Book Festival. As she gets closer to Simon, the openly enthusiastic and neurotypical of the two, she realizes it's really Jonah, the boy she argues with constantly and finds a bit off-putting, who she's actually more and more drawn to. As the summer wraps up and the festival approaches, Allegra has to make some decisions about what she owes to others, and to herself.
Young Adult Romance | Fiction Family Life [Wednesday Books, On Sale: August 26, 2025, Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9781250335586 / eISBN: 9781250335579]
Elle McNicoll is a bestselling and award-winning novelist and screenwriter. Her debut, A Kind of Spark, won the Blue Peter Book Award and the Overall Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, as well as Blackwell’s Book of 2020. She is a four time Carnegie nominated author, and was shortlisted for the Books Are My Bag Awards 2020, 2021 and 2022, the Branford Boase Award 2020 and The Little Rebels Award 2020 and 2021. She was also honoured in the US with the Schneider Award, 2022. Her second novel, Show Us Who You Are, was Blackwell’s Book of the Month and one of The Bookseller’s Best Books of 2021. Her first fantasy middle grade, Like a Charm, was nominated for Best Children’s Book for Older Readers in the first ever Week Junior Book Awards, and was highly praised in the New York Times. Her debut novel, A Kind of Spark, has also been adapted for television, which debuted on UK and US screens on the 2nd of April, 2023. It is Emmy nominated and won Best Children’s Programme at the Broadcast Awards in London, 2024 and is now streaming in many territories around the globe. A second season is currently in production. Her debut was named as one of the greatest children’s books of all time, coming in at number 75, and she is twice nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. Her YA debut, Some Like It Cold, will be published on October 1st (US) and October 3rd (UK). She is an advocate for better representation of neurodiversity in publishing, and currently lives in North London.
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