“The brilliant thing is, having written a first novel, I never have to again,” Sophie Dahl says to me during our phone interview.
It’s not unusual for first-time novelists to reflect with relief on the nerve-wracking process of exposing their debuts to the public—but Dahl, the granddaughter of beloved children’s author Roald Dahl, knows her book will come under particular scrutiny. Luckily, Playing With the Grown-ups earned good marks from the Los Angeles Times and BookPage when it was released last month, though Dahl still likens the experience to a “baptism by fire.”
