# Book Club Meets: Fertility pressures, medical racism, and hen parties, with Candice Carty-Williams

An episode of [Happy Place](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1353058891), 3 Aug 2026, 44 min.

Audio: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/acast/s/happy-place/e/6a60f37479a4d75c7491f31d/media.mp3

This month in the Happy Place Book Club, we’ve been reading Queenie Is Working On It, by Candice Carty-Williams. This is the much anticipated follow up to 2019’s Queenie.... and this time, Queenie Jenkins is questioning whether she wants kids, being priced out of the housing market in the place she grew up, and coping with horrible heartbreak too. In this chat with Fearne – live from the Happy Place Festival – Candice explains why she felt it was so important to write about big topics like medical racism and fertility pressures, as well as why for her characters come first and the plot is just a side quest. Also, we all think hen parties are the absolute worst, right?? Thank you to Trapeze for the use of the Queenie Is Working On It audiobook, narrated by Shvorne Marks. You can listen to the Queenie Is Working On It audiobook, from bookshop.org, here. If you'd like to WIN a year's supply of audiobooks, enter our competition with bookshop.org here. Competition closes on August 22nd. If you liked this episode of Happy Place, you might also like: Book Club Meets: Caro Claire Burke Book Club Meets: Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees Book Club Meets: Imani Thompson Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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