Diana Reid on Sally Rooney, Love & Virtue and her fast follow-up: ‘Lockdown gave me freedom to fail’

Diana Reid was 24 when she started writing Love & Virtue in 2020. It won awards and became a bestseller – and now she’s back with a follow-up. Photograph: Blake Sharp-Wiggins/The Guardian

Getting published was a “dream come true” for Diana Reid.

“You know when you’re a kid so excited for Christmas Day that you wake up really early?” she says. “For a month after I found out I was being published, I woke up unnaturally early every day because I was so excited to live my life.”