Nussaibah Younis: The Bell Jar helped me through my own mental illness'

"The first books I became obsessed with were Enid Blyton's boarding school stories Malory Towers and St Clare's. When I was eight, I'd hide them under my pillow and read by the hallway light when I was supposed to be asleep. My favourite book growing up Roald Dahl's Matilda. I felt woefully misunderstood by the world and longed to be adopted by a very pretty teacher with only cardboard for furniture. I spent a lot of time trying to make a pen move by concentration alone. Sometimes I still try."

"I read The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath when I was 16 and it was a shocking and disorienting introduction to mental illness in young women. A couple of years later, when I experienced a serious bout of mental illness, The Bell Jar helped conceptualise what was happening. Scoop by Evelyn Waugh is a brilliantly funny satire of war journalism that still rings disturbingly true. It inspired me to write a comedy about a bonkers UN programme in Iraq which turned into my debut novel, Fundamentally."

"I had Donna Tartt's The Secret History on my shelf for 10 years without ever reading it. Then I found myself alone and unwell one Christmas and I disappeared into its enchanting, atmospheric world. Sometimes a book is there for you at just the right time. In moments of grief, I return to Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking. It is a word-perfect exploration of the insanity brought on by loss, and it helps me feel less alone in the darkest times. I always have a big, cathartic cry when I read it."

Obsession with Enid Blyton's boarding school stories and Roald Dahl's Matilda began in childhood, leading to secretive, nightly reading and imaginative play. The Bell Jar provided a disorienting introduction to young women's mental illness and later helped conceptualise personal experience of serious illness. Scoop by Evelyn Waugh inspired a satirical comedy about a bonkers UN programme in Iraq that became a debut novel, Fundamentally. Donna Tartt's The Secret History provided solace during a period of being unwell. Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking offers catharsis in grief. Portnoy's Complaint was rejected for its misogynistic preoccupations, and Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique reframed thinking at nineteen.

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