Meg Mason on Why Readers Form Deep Bonds With Authors
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Meg Mason opened up about her own decades-long parasocial relationship with Nancy Mitford, which began at age 17 when her mother handed her The Pursuit of Love during a period of acute loneliness, and said she still finds it hard to believe Mitford 'isn't actually my friend.'
- Cambridge Dictionary named 'parasocial' its word of the year in 2025, defining it as 'a connection that someone feels between themselves and a famous person they do not know.'
- Cathy Rentzenbrink is publishing The Agatha Christie Cure next month, a memoir about returning to Christie following her divorce; she told Mason she was 'scared I was going mad' from talking to the long-dead author and called the experience 'wondrous.'
- Dr Georgia Carroll, a sociologist focused on parasocial relationships, said 'almost every single person has had one' and argued the reader-author variant is uniquely deep because authors 'hold such a place in the lives of big readers.'
- An online study cited in the piece found 51% of Americans have likely been in parasocial relationships, though only 16% admit to it.
- Jack Edwards, host of the Inklings Book Club podcast, said podcasts are uniquely potent for parasocial connection because 'we bring the author's voice into our homes, on to our morning commute, into our safe spaces.'
- The term 'parasocial' was devised in the 1950s by academics studying viewers' connections with television characters, decades before its application to readers and authors — and, Mason notes, dead authors can make these bonds easier because they 'do not change.'
Why it matters: The piece reframes a relationship 51% of Americans likely share but only 16% admit to, potentially easing shame for devoted readers and giving authors like Mason permission to welcome the connection — including the *Sorrow and Bliss* tattoos fans have gotten — rather than feel burdened by it.
Ask SkimNews
