#6Degrees of Separation – A book chain from All Fours by Miranda July to The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell

It’s the first Saturday of the month which means it’s time for 6 Degrees of Separation.

Here’s how it works: a book is chosen as a starting point by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.

Kate says: Books can be linked in obvious ways – for example, books by the same authors, from the same era or genre, or books with similar themes or settings. Or, you may choose to link them in more personal or esoteric ways: books you read on the same holiday, books given to you by a particular friend, books that remind you of a particular time in your life, or books you read for an online challenge. Join in by posting your own #6Degrees chain on your blog and adding the link in the comments section of each month’s post.   You can also check out links to posts on X using the hashtag #6Degrees.

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This month’s starting book is All Fours by Miranda July which has been shortlisted for the 2025 Women’s Prize for Fiction. (The winner will be announced on 12th June.) It’s a book I haven’t read and, to be honest, the blurb – ‘part absurd entertainment, part tender reinvention of the sexual, romantic, and domestic life of a forty-five-year-old female artist’ – doesn’t hold much appeal. However, the description of the story as ‘one woman’s quest for a new kind of freedom’ gives me a good starting point for my chain. Links from each title will take you to my review or the book description on Goodreads.

In Thea and Denise by Caroline Bond, two women who seem polar opposites meet (in the ladies’ of the Grosvenor Hotel in London) and unexpectedly become friends. They realise they’re both looking to escape from their current lives and set out on a road trip together through Britain.

In a similar vein, The Golden Girls’ Getaway by Judy Leigh sees three ladies ‘of a certain age’ who are all rather lonely and in desperate need of change, borrow a motor home and travel the length and breadth of Britain.

More women in search of a change in their lives feature in Three Women and a Boat by Anne Youngson. In this case their mode of transport is a narrowboat and on their journey they encounter a variety of people: “the picturesque, the not-quite-normal and the colourful“.

Moving to real life changes, in her memoir The Outrun (recently made into a film starring Saoirse Ronan), Amy Liptrot describes her experience of returning to Orkney where she grew up to continue her recovery from alcoholism. When she moves to an even more remote island, as well as becoming part of its small community, she discovers an interest in astronomy, wild swimming and wildlife.

In Kathleen Hart’s memoir Devorgilla Days she describes how while recovering from breast cancer she came across photographs of a small, whitewashed cottage for sale in Wigtown, Scotland and, on impulse, bought it. Like Amy Liptrot, she finds physical and mental healing in becoming part of the local community and from her daily swim in the sea.

Wigtown is the location of The Bookshop, Scotland’s largest second-hand bookshop with over a mile of shelving. Its owner, Shaun Bythell, is the author of The Diary of a Bookseller in which he recounts the trials and tribulations of life in the book trade.

My chain started with book shortlisted for a literary prize and ended with a bookseller. Where did your chain take you?