Samantha Ellis

I’m certainly not discussing it like a gotcha. I’m speaking from my own experience.

I write to communicate, entertain, inform, contribute, in books & also journalism, events, radio, podcasts which are accessible to people who can’t afford the book, who have less time or whose first language isn’t English so prefer to listen than read. It’s not all about selling books for me.

“Self-market” & “self-promote” makes it sound like writers are egomaniacs wanting attention / sales but more often we have lovingly made books we want to share & sometimes our work is about untold stories or important issues which we are trying to get across.

I don’t mind when it’s you!!!

Three people seated on a stage.Left- Man, white, dark jacket and brown trousers,dark hair. Middle - woman pink cardigan, brown curly hair. Right, man, bald, yellow cardigan. Big background on the screen says Who Jew Think You Are

Same three people pose for a selfie.

Piles of those books

Fantastic to talk to Jordan Salama and @samanthaellis.bsky.social at @jewishliteraryfoundation.co.uk.

Their books, 'Stranger in the Desert' and 'Chopping Onions on my Heart' are wonderful, so it was a pleasure to get to know them both better.

Subscribe now to hear our conversation on the pod.

I’m not on here much (is anyone else feeling too much platform exhaustion?) but I have a few events coming up including one this Sunday which was sold out but now has tickets as we’ve been moved to a bigger room! Do come. All the details here:

www.samanthaellis.me.uk/events

Navy bar lounge with a copy of always carry salt and a good luck eye charm next to it.

While Samantha Ellis’s memoir ALWAYS CARRY SALT is ostensibly about Judeo-Iraqi Arabic, it is also about the culture that produced it, and living in a diaspora that finds your existence inconvenient. I flew through it.

https://bookishlyjewish.com/?p=3110

Yes they really do.

As for Nelly, in the film she’s made a paid companion so working class & she is also blamed for keeping Cathy and Heathcliff apart, two of many decisions which I think make the film less liberated & radical than the book.

I half agree! I think Emily Brontë was perfectly capable of being specific about his otherness if she wanted to be, so it was a choice not to. But I also think it’s strange in 2026 not to cast him as “other” in any way.

Yes probably not the best way to do it. I do also think these changes are very specific to Britain so probably feel quite different from where I am standing.

Yes - my point is that Victorians read the Irish as non-white. So what we call white or non-white now is different. FWIW I would be keen on more non-white actors playing him but I’d also love to see an Irish Heathcliff if the film was clear about the context of how the Irish were seen then.

I’m not sure this is true - Emily Brontë was certainly aware of & possibly inspired by stories of Irish refugees from the Famine who, like her family, faced prejudice expressed in racialised terms eg comparing them to chimpanzees. I think she wanted Heathcliff to be “other” & chose not to specify.

Front Row - Review: Wuthering Heights film and Jack Thorne's Lord of the Flies - BBC Sounds Former artistic director Jude Kelly on the Southbank Centre being Grade II listed.

Want to hear what me & @stephmerritt.bsky.social thought of the new Wuthering Heights film?

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

I am so happy to hear this. How lovely.

Really enjoyed talking to @alexvont.bsky.social about the novel. Do have a listen. And if you’d like to hear my thoughts on the film I will also be on Front Row tonight to review it.

I love this advice (!)

Marilynne Robinson: The killings in Minneapolis [FREE TO READ] As American cities have been left reeling by ICE federal agents, the acclaimed novelist explores the deeper conflict behind Donald Trump’s show of force

We asked the extraordinary and rightly celebrated author Marilynne Robinson to respond to events in Minneapolis. She immediately sent us a forceful and utterly direct cri de coeur. The Weekend Essay as.ft.com/r/afe4fee8-1...

Currently reading these. Both excellent. Samantha never misses: her books are musts to read.

Thank you!

My mother as a small girl on a fairground horse with her father in Iraq in the 1950s

Rice and lentils dish

Sweet and sour fish dish

Two new recipes for the Jewish Food Society! www.jewishfoodsociety.org/stories/writ...

How to ward off the Evil Eye And a LOT of book recs

Latest substack in which in the grand tradition of how to titles I don’t really tell you how to ward off the evil eye but I do recommend a lot of books.

Wow thank you so much!

Always Carry Salt: A Memoir of Preserving Language and Culture Join us on Thursday January 15th at 7 p.m.

“An urgent and ten­der explo­ration of cul­tur­al extinc­tion” - lovely review from Shamar Hill at the @jewishbookcouncil.bsky.social.

www.jewishbookcouncil.org/book/always-...

Always Carry Salt: Samantha Ellis in Conversation with Jordan Salama Join acclaimed authors Samantha Ellis and Jordan Salama as they discuss Ellis's powerful new memoir Always Carry Salt. In this moving meditation on language and resilience, Ellis - the dau

Join us this Thursday January 15th at 7p.m. ET for a conversation with @samanthaellis.bsky.social and Jordan Salama. The two will be in conversation on Ellis's powerful new memoir, ALWAYS CARRY SALT. Reserve your spot today! bit.ly/492B17W

Preserving Our Stories: Nine Books About Iraqi Jews Growing up as the daughter of Iraqi Jewish refugees in London in the 1980s, there were very few books about my community. In Iraq, the Jewish story had been erased.

Aaaand nine great books about Iraqi Jews. There used to be really none so it’s amazing there are starting to be more.

www.jewishbookcouncil.org/pb-daily/pre...

The best family sagas of all time, according to Samantha Ellis The playwright and author selects the novels about families and the relationships between generations that she holds closest to her heart

My favourite fictional family sagas. What are yours?

inews.co.uk/culture/book...

Always Carry Salt: Samantha Ellis in Conversation with Jordan Salama Join acclaimed authors Samantha Ellis and Jordan Salama as they discuss Ellis's powerful new memoir Always Carry Salt. In this moving meditation on language and resilience, Ellis - the dau

Next week! Join us on Thursday January 15th at 7p.m. ET for a conversation with Samantha Ellis and Jordan Salama. The two will be in conversation on Ellis's powerful new memoir, ALWAYS CARRY SALT. Reserve your spot today! bit.ly/492B17W

Thank you!

A yellow background with scattered gold confetti. Title in gold reads “happy release day” and below are the book covers for The Star Society and Always Carry Salt

Happy release day to The Star a society by Gabriella Saab and Always Carry Salt by @samanthaellis.bsky.social

https://amzn.to/4aH86Zr

https://amzn.to/49HpJr1