Jessica Dettmann

Jessica Dettmann is an Australian novelist whose fiction combines romantic comedy, family dynamics, and dry social observation. Her book listed here as Without Further ADO is published by HarperCollins Australia as Without Further Ado. It follows Willa, a romance publisher in her mid-thirties who has measured love against Kenneth Branagh’s film of Much Ado About Nothing since adolescence. When her work and family relationships begin to echo Shakespeare’s comedy, Willa has to reconsider the stories that shaped her expectations. Dettmann has explained that a lockdown viewing of the film prompted her to imagine a modern counterpart to Beatrice who had never moved beyond an early artistic touchstone. That origin gives the novel both its theatrical framework and its interest in how favorite stories influence later choices.