Lizzy Barber

Lizzy Barber read English at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. She has worked in acting and film development, and has spent the last eight years working in the restaurant business with her brother Jamie, heading up their brand and marketing department. They have a small group of restaurants in Mayfair: Haché, Hush and Cabana. Lizzy lives in London with her husband, George, their son Marlowe, and daughter Juniper.

Lizzy’s first novel My Name is Anna was a Daily Mail First novel winner, a Richard & Judy pick and was published in 2019 in the UK by Penguin Random House. Out of Her Depth was published in 2022 by Pan Macmillan in the UK and was a Richard & Judy Book Club pick. Its TV rights have been optioned by Eleventh Hour Films.

Author's books

Be Mine

If ‘wellness’ is the new religion, what happens when it goes too far?

A high-concept thriller with a heart that takes the idea of “extraordinary things happen to ordinary people” to the extreme…

Beth is a new mother struggling to find her place in the world. She is exhausted, mentally and physically, but her anxieties are not simply the fears of a first-time mum. A terror burns in her, fuelled by a secret past she is lucky to have escaped. When a letter arrives, bearing only the infinity symbol, Beth knows immediately it is from them . And that her past is finally catching up with her…

Ten years earlier, on the heels of a messy breakup, Beth meets the effervescent Marissa who introduces her to “Elixir” – a health and wellness organisation that she promises will change Beth’s life forever. She quickly becomes intoxicated and convinced it is the solution to all her problems. No task is too great, even as the gruelling exercise classes become more frequent, even as the therapy sessions become more costly, even as their ‘requests’ become ‘demands,’ Beth convinces herself this is what she wants.

Then, when she falls for the brand’s enigmatic leader, Tate, she can’t imagine life without Elixir. But as Beth’s star begins to rise, Marissa’s starts to fall. And though Marissa tries to warn her of the darkness lurking beneath the brand’s gleaming exterior, Beth finds she cannot let go.

Be Mine is a story about identity: finding our place in the world today, and where we turn to belong in a godless modern society.