Whether you’re an avid reader or not, you’ve probably seen Coco Mellors all over social media. Her debut novel Cleopatra and Frankensteinattracted a lot of attention – thanks to the vibrant oil painting of her main character, Cleo, which made the book even more captivating. But the praise went beyond the cover – many found Mellor’s writing style remarkably realistic, and upon its release in 2022, the book was widely recognized by various publications as one of the most captivating books of the year.
Born in northwest London, Mellors is the youngest of four siblings. Thanks to her father’s work, she moved to New York at 15, where she later earned her Master of Fine Arts (MFA) from NYU. Mellors then moved to Los Angeles, where she lived for three years and worked as a fashion copywriter until her last book was published. Blue Sisterswas completed.
It’s a weekday when she and I connect on a Zoom call. It’s 9 a.m. for her in New York (where she now lives), and the bestselling author wears a bubble-print headband as we speak. “I always wanted to be a writer, I can’t remember ever wanting to be anything else,” she says, attributing her love of writing to her passion for reading. Her mother, an avid reader, frequently reviewed books and read to her as a child.
So it’s no surprise that the British-born New Yorker beams with enthusiasm when I ask her about her favorite authors. She loves James Baldwin and has read all of his books, with Giovanni’s Room being her favorite.
Mellors appreciates not only the classics but also contemporary authors such as Jennifer Egan, Zadie Smith and Jonathan Franzen. She often looks to the modern era of writing for inspiration. She is currently reading Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe.
The 35-year-old’s book Cleopatra and Frankenstein– a title her mother came up with – took five years to write and she faced 30 rejections before she found a publisher. But the “mostly mild rejections” made Mellors believe the book would speak to its readers. “I felt like I had a direction,” she tells Bazaar India. “Like the third book I’m writing, I’m really struggling with it and feeling a bit lost, but if I’m not writing the book I’m scared of, then I know I’m not writing the right book.”
Her debut book revolves around Cleo and Frank, who meet in an elevator as they leave a party just before New Years. Cleo, an ethereal but sophisticated artist from England in her early twenties, crosses paths with Frank, a wealthy media mogul in his forties. In a hasty decision, they marry just as Cleo’s student visa is about to expire. The book explores the life of their spontaneous marriage and the aftermath.
Mellors reveals that the first scene she wrote for her debut book was the honeymoon scene on the balcony. “I wrote it during my MFA program as an exercise from my teacher Amy Hempel, who asked us to create a scene where the emotional tone contradicts the expected setting. With a honeymoon, you expect romance and harmony, so I wrote a scene full of disharmony, disappointment, and lack of communication.”
She jokes of her laughing protagonist, “If I could change one thing about my career, it would be not making Cleopatra blonde!” Mellors struggled to build a connection with her, who seemed flat compared to other characters. “Cleo was very protective and kept slipping away from me, so I ended up giving her a special physical feature – blonde hair.” She also mentions her fascination with the concept of a green card marriage, which added external pressure to the relationship and shaped the book.
Cleopatra and Frankenstein is currently in production as a television series. Mellors is actively involved in adapting her book and making sure the story is preserved. The series will be broadcast by Warner Bros. Television Studios and Brownstone Productions. However, Mellors adds, “It’s TV land and anything can happen… so stay tuned!”
Mellors has written her two books while working a full-time job, and is constantly striving to find a balance between work and personal life. “In order to write, I have to live and gain experience. There are times when I don’t write much because I’m having interesting experiences or because I need to earn money,” she says.
There have been many weeks when Mellors has been unable to work on her novels due to deadlines or clients. “If I haven’t written for a while, the first few days after returning are just about getting into the rhythm. I can’t write at the level I want straight away,” she explains.
“I tried not to work on Fridays so I could have Friday, Saturday and Sunday to write. That way I had at least three consecutive days to think and incubate.” Mellors believes that being a writer allows her to live her life multiple times, which gives it another dimension and fullness that she wouldn’t otherwise have. “So I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything (in life) that way,” she says. “Writing is the love of my life in many ways.”
Her books often deal with addiction, alcoholism and grief. She explains, “It’s not that I want to talk about it, it’s that I have to talk about it – I don’t even have a choice!” Mellors finds these topics unavoidable. “I’m really interested in writing about the things that we find hard to talk about.” For her, fiction is most powerful and poignant when it addresses these topics. “The things that make us feel the most alone are, to me, the best topics to write about.”
Mellors, who got sober at 26, comes from a family with a history of addiction and alcoholism, and almost everyone is now sober. “Addiction is a part of my life, and I’m very open about my own sobriety.” In her books, she tackles topics like motherhood, battling endometriosis and physical pain – things she has experienced herself. “There are so many, especially women’s experiences,” says Mellors. That, she says, drives her as a creative person.
Daisy is her only full sister among her siblings, less than two years older than her, and they have an incredibly close bond. “She is, in many ways, the most important relationship in my life, aside from my husband and son. I wanted to capture the intensity, toughness, beauty and ugliness of this love that we share,” says Mellors.
Her latest novel, Blue Sisterstook about two years to complete and tells the story of three very different sisters who live in different parts of the world and meet again on the anniversary of the death of their fourth sister. “I loved the idea of the four sisters,” explains Mellors. “It’s such a literary device… there’s a romanticism and a kind of iconography around it that I wanted to play with.”
The author finds a piece of herself in each sister in her novel. With Avery, she connects long-term abstinence and the perfectionism of making up for past mistakes. With Barney, she sees the parallels between boxing and writing, both of which require monomaniacal devotion.
Although Nikki is no longer alive in the book, for Mellors she lives on through her memories. “I could identify with her love of clothes, femininity and her deep desire to be a mother coupled with the fear of not being able to.” With Lucky, she sees her own youth, where her confidence hid fear and ignorance. “Her death-defying partying reminds me of my own reckless experiences, where I now think, ‘Thank God I survived.’ It’s a haunting reminder of the vulnerability of young people, especially drug addicts.”
In addition to the television series, Mellors is also working on her third book, set in Paris, about a woman who is achieving success for the first time in her career. She says of the plot: “This character, who has always been in the background of other people’s successes, has now made a film that has become popular in France. She finds herself in the city, experiencing a creative renaissance while wrestling with whether to continue trying for a child after a miscarriage. She is faced with a crucial decision: should she return to America to be a mother or enjoy her newfound creative freedom in Paris?”
The story also involves a love triangle between her ex-girlfriend, a pop star in Paris, and her husband, who was the pop star’s music producer. Mellors wants to write a short, lively novel – a Parisian summer story about love and grief.
The grief Mellors will explore this time is miscarriage. “It’s something I really wanted to write about because I’ve experienced it myself,” she says. She finds fertility an intriguing topic for women in their 30s. “I was very aware of patriarchy, misogyny and sexism in my 20s, but at the same time I felt, to some extent, equal to the men around me. We all did what we wanted in our 20s. But in my 30s, times changed for all the women I know. Whether they wanted children or not, time got shorter for us, but not for men. We had this biological responsibility that had never existed before – just a short period of time to make the biggest decision of our lives: whether to have a child, with whom, and whether we could even have one. I realised how unfair this is, especially when I realised that men are free during this time to focus on their careers, travel and can decide to have children with a younger partner at 48. For most women, this door is closed at 48.”
Mellors hesitates a little when I ask her about the book’s release date. She mentions that she’s due to submit the manuscript in the spring of next year. Because she has a new baby and her book – which is not yet out in the US – is touring, she can’t give a specific timeline. “I think books are meant to last a very, very long time. That’s why I don’t rush the process. I want to write books that people can read in 10, 20 or 50 years. There’s no point in writing something quickly that I won’t be happy with in a year.”
Photo credit: Zoe Potkin
This article first appeared in the August print issue of Harper’s Bazaar India.
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