Hannah Beckerman Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Hannah Beckerman is a popular UK-based author, broadcaster, and journalist, who is known for writing fiction and contemporary stories. She began her writing career in 2014 with the book called The Dead Wife’s Handbook. In 2019, she came up with her second book, If Only I Could Tell You. As a journalist, Beckerman writes for The FT Weekend Magazine, The Observer, and Sunday Express. She even works as a book critic for BBC Radio 2. Beckerman attends literary events regularly throughout the United Kingdom and chairs many such events. She has judged several book prizes, such as the Costa Book Awards. Prior to beginning her career in the field of writing, Beckerman used to work as a film and TV producer. She has spent fifteen years of her life commissioning and producing documentaries based on History, Arts, and Science in the UK and the US.

Author Beckerman says that she has been writing stories for a long time. It was only several years later that she got the feeling that she can develop a full length novel, thereby, coming up with her first book in 2014. After achieving immense success with her very first book, Beckerman didn’t publish another book for around five years. She spent all this time in developing her second book. Her journalism career goes side by side with her writing interests. It also revolves mostly around authors and books, interviewing authors at the publishing events and literary festivals throughout the country. Beckerman considers it a long masterclass of creative writing. Currently, she resides in London along with her loving husband and daughter. Though her house is pet-less at the moment, she doesn’t intend to keep it that way for very long.

Beckerman loves to interact with fellow writers and readers, both online and in person. She is mostly active on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Beckerman says that when she was a child, her mother used to take her and her brothers to the local library on Wednesdays. They used to spend hours browsing the shelves and taking their six favorite books home to read the entire week. Beckerman repeated this every week for many years and this is how her love for books developed. While still in love with books, she joined King’s College in London to study English. After obtaining her bachelor’s degree, she joined Queen Mary and Westfield for her master’s degree in literature. Not knowing what to do next, Beckerman penned a dozen letters and sent them to film companies, television broadcasters, newspapers, and publishing houses to ask for work experience opportunities.

After facing rejection from most of them, she finally received an offer from the BBC to join its Arts department. Her employment at the BBC was initially for just two weeks, but it extended to seven long years. Beckerman is credited to have come up with the concept of The Big Read, a nationwide voting project for finding the country’s favorite novel. It received a prize for innovation at the British Books Awards. After this, Beckerman went on to work for other channels like Discovery Channel, Channel 4, etc. In 2009, she came across her future husband and got romantically involved with him. He worked as a British diplomat in Bangladesh at that time. While he worked for his two-year tenure in the British embassy in Bangladesh, Beckerman lived in Dhaka and gave him company. She spent the time working for BBC TV show there. Beckerman sees it as an adventure that allowed her to travel to places like South-East Asia, China, Middle East, South America, etc. The adventure in Bangladesh turned into a happy ending for her as she married her diplomat boyfriend and was blessed with a daughter.

The debut book written by author Hannah Beckerman is entitled ‘The Dead Wife’s Handbook’. It was released by the Penguin publication in 2014. The central characters mentioned in this book include Ellie, Max, Rachel, and several others. Initially, Rachel and Max are introduced as a happy couple living a perfect life with their daughter named Ellie. Their happiness fades away shockingly when Rachel dies an untimely death all of a sudden. Following Rachel’s death, Ellie and Max try their best to live without her. And just like her family is not able to forget her, she is also unable to let them go. Rachel gets caught between the two worlds and her soul watches helplessly as her memory starts fading away from the lives of her daughter and her husband. Later, Max’s friends and family members start persuading him to start dating and find another life partner. Rachel could not digest this and realizes that her death was just the start of the real problems for her. As she continues to grieve for her lost life, she learns that sometimes what breaks the heart of people is exactly the thing that they hope for. Through this novel, author Beckerman has given an unforgettable exploration of one’s love and loss.

The second book penned by Beckerman is known as ‘If Only I Could Tell You’. It was published in 2019 by the Orion publication. The primary characters created by Beckerman for this novel include Jess, Lily, Audrey, Mia, Phoebe, and a few others. Initially, Audrey is introduced as the mother of two grown-up daughters named Lily and Jess. They are also mothers of one teenage daughter each. Audrey feels that her life has fallen completely apart. Lily and Jess are estranged and they don’t let their daughters meet. The family has been divided into two due to a secret that dates back 30 years. However, the secret is also the only thing that has kept them connected for so long. When the tensions in the family rise to the point of breaking, the irrevocable decision made by one of the family members thirty years ago is about to come to light. All of them wonder how to they can get back together after so many years of silence and secrets. The story is full of many tragic and triggering things such as suicide, miscarriage, illness, etc. Beckerman has written the story in the third person and has described the lives of the main characters very well. It is a powerful and intriguing story that shakes the readers from within.