Isobel Beech, copywriter, editor, and fiction author – it’s safe to say when it comes to writing she’s done it all. Based in Melbourne, Beech is a true wordsmith who effortlessly weaves innovation with elegance, creating compelling narratives that captivate and inspire. Her distinctive style makes her an essential voice in the literary and creative landscape.

Releasing her first fiction novel in 2022, Sunbathing, Beech presents an influential debut that explores life, death, and the healing nature of friendship under the Abruzzo summer sun. Currently, one of her most relatable habits, that in Beech's words is '"foolish", is starting a rotation of books, to only read them half way, before starting on another. Something, that I must say, I am guilty of too. Throughout the rotation of books Beech has read, Rosemary's Baby, Giovanni's Room and Experience stand as her three favourite books of all time. Where Foreign Soil by Maxine Beneba Clarke was a book that opened up her world when she was in her early twenties.

Below, we speak with Isobel Beech on books that have had such profound impacts on her, to a book that you have to read at least once in your lifetime.

The last book I read …

The last book I read all the way through was either Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters or I’m a Fan by Sheena Patel which both were like nine months ago. Since then I’ve just been starting books, reading half, then slowly trying to finish them (and not succeeding) while starting a rotating cast of others. It’s foolish.

 

On my bedside table: I am currently reading …

Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson, On All Fours by Miranda July, Yellowface by Rebecca F. Kuang, On Writing by Stephen King and Sociopath by Patric Gagne. Because I’m an insane person.

 

My favourite book of all time …

I don’t know if I have one! But my top 10 includes Rosemary’s Baby (Ira Levin), Giovanni’s Room (James Baldwin), and Experience (Martin Amis).

The literary character I most identify with is …

Years ago I read Elena Ferrante’s The Days of Abandonment while living, miserable, in London and it affected me so intensely that I started thinking I was having a breakdown like her protagonist does. If that counts.

 

The book that changed my life is …

Foreign Soil by Maxine Beneba Clarke really opened up my world when I was in my early twenties.

The best book I ever received is…

I’ve been given a lot of great books over the years as gifts or for lending, but the most recent great experience was borrowing Carmen Maria Machado’s In The Dream House from my friend.

The book I would give as a gift is …

Deeply depends on the receiver! And the time of year! And the occasion! That being said I did give What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt to a bunch of people years ago just because I was really into it.

Growing up, the best book on my bookshelf was …

I desperately wanted to be punk as a teenager so I read Lisa Crystal Carver’s Drugs Are Nice over and over and over. Also was very bowled over by We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver.

The Australian writers I admire the most are….

Peter Carey, Bruce Pascoe, Maxine Beneba Clarke, Mahmood Fazal, Don Watson, Amy Thunig, Helen Garner.

My favourite living author is …

Oh, god. I don’t know. There aren’t many left of the ones I loved most. Don DeLillo?

A book everyone should read at least once is…

Giovanni’s Room. You just have to.