Whenever You’re Ready

By Trish Bolton

A love letter to the lives of older women, Whenever You’re Ready is a moving and perceptive novel about three women searching for a way forward in the wake of a sudden loss.

‘Tender, warm-hearted and wise.’ Toni Jordan

‘Each of the women in this novel feels like she could be a friend.’ Sophie Green


An unexpected death finds Lizzie, Alice and Margot at various crossroads in their lives, torn between looking back and moving on.

Lizzie is reeling from her discovery of a decades-old secret that changes everything she thought she knew about her friends, her family and her marriage. Alice has always been the good-time girl, as charismatic presenting the weather on television as she is working as a life model. But decades of piecemeal gigs have left her with a rapidly unravelling safety net. Meanwhile, Lizzie’s perfectionist daughter Margot is realising that, despite having built herself a faultlessly curated life, she hasn’t put her troubled past behind her as neatly as she thought she had.

Whenever You’re Ready is a sweetly wise and gently wistful novel about the secrets and seasons of three intertwined lives.

‘Bolton is a natural-born storyteller and her debut novel is a gift to us all.’ Lee Kofman

‘Social commentary shot through with wicked humour. I loved it.’ Lucy Treloar

‘Engaging, moving and full of heart.’ Suzanne Leal

‘Trish Bolton renders visible the complex lives of older women who are so often invisible in our culture. A page-turner of a novel.’ Sian Prior

‘The grief in Bolton’s novel is weighty and pervasive, but her tone is light and matter-of-fact; it’s as if Sally Hepworth wrote Jennifer Down’s Bodies of Light. Bolton has written through the “not knowing what to say” of grief. This book will also appeal to fans of Gail Honeyman with her rendering of retired, but not retiring, women.’ Books + Publishing

About the author:

Trish Bolton is a Melbourne writer whose words have appeared in Overland, New Matilda, The Big Issue, The Age, Sunday Age, Sydney Morning Herald and Canberra Times. Whenever You’re Ready is her debut novel.

ISBN: 9781761470271

Publisher: Allen & Unwin

Credit: https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Trish-Bolton-Whenever-You’re-Ready-9781761470271