About Us

HELLO! My name is Sarah AKA What Sarah Read Next. Some of you reading this may have heard about me through Instagram where I bang on about  all the amazing books I've been reading OR some of you may have just casually found me here via some other cool means. Either way, you’re here and I hope you stick around for lot longer.

I started my @whatsarahreadnext page not long after my late husband Tim died in 2018, as a way to escape. Books basically saved me from crawling into a very dark hole. I set up WHAT SARAH READ NEXT as a way of blogging about the books I was reading on Instagram. During lockdown I started to reach out to lots of authors to interview them like Annie Mac, Musa Okwonga and Douglas Stuart, whose respective books I had read and loved. I got to chat to them on my platform which I absolutely LOVED doing - there's something rather magical about reading a brilliant book and then getting into the mind of the author to find out so much more. I've since interviewed tones of fab authors not only on my platform but also in actual real life. 

The idea for setting up an online book club has been rattling around in my head for quite some time now. I've set up and ran lots of in-person bookclubs in the past but nothing quite like this before. I've had tones of people ask me  - 'Are you ever going to set up a bookclub Sarah?' and to be honest, as much as I wanted to, I couldn't get my head the back-end logistical side of it all. Then one day I was chatting to Charlie about wanting to set up an online bookclub and he looked at me and was like "OMG SO DO I". So that my friends, is as how WHAT WE READ NEXT was birthed. 

This is Charlie! Charlie grew up in Hastings and, like me, is a MASSIVE reader. Literally just before the pandemic kicked off, he opened The Hastings Bookshop (November 2020), having always dreamed of running an independent bookshop in his hometown. The timing couldn't have been worse, as we were all ordered to stay at home. Undeterred, Charlie took his book business online and started delivering all local orders on an e-bike. If you've been to Hastings, you'll know how essential an e-bike is — this town is hilly y'all. Charlie was awarded the ‘Bookshop Hero’ award by The Bookseller in 2022 for ‘realising his dream of capturing the town’s cultural moment’.

At the heart of The Hastings Bookshop and my platform What Sarah Read Next, is the idea that books have a vital social role in the life of a community. Books bring escapism, joy and hope and have the social power to change lives. This is why Charlie and I are super excited about our Bookclub and really can't wait for you to be part of our community.