I remember seeing the film Some Like It Hot on TV when I was seven or eight. It was a Sunday afternoon and I was sprawled on the rug in front of the fire reading a book. I don’t remember much about the film apart from Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon dressed as women, and … More Mr Wilder & Me by Jonathan Coe
We’re a week away from Christmas, the biggest festive celebration in the Western calendar. If you’re anything like me, the last few weeks will have disappeared in a blur of buying presents, decorating the tree, stock-piling food and alcohol, carousing with friends, singing carols and Christmas songs, and generally building up to the big day … More Quarantine by Jim Crace
During junior school I became obsessed with Enid Blyton’s Famous Five novels. My classmate, John, was equally obsessed and we started competing to see who could collect all 21 books in the series. This was more of a challenge than it might sound. Neither of us had enough spare money to buy the entire collection … More Spies by Michael Frayn
I was only three or four, I think, when I learned adults could not necessarily be relied upon to keep their promises. At that time my mother’s youngest sister and her husband were the only members of the family to own a car. They visited every Sunday and I’d perch on the window ledge, waiting … More The Promise by Damon Galgut
translated from French by Anna Moschovakis My two granddads fought in World War One, my maternal granddad in Belgium, my paternal granddad in Iraq (where he died; there’s a Memorial at Basra commemorating him and the other 40,000 casualties of the Mesopotamia campaign). A generation on, my dad fought in World War Two in North … More At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop
My father was an alcoholic, albeit a functioning one. He would come home from work on a Friday and drink a bottle of whisky. He’d drink another two bottles on Saturday and a half-bottle on Sunday. He generally wouldn’t go to bed no matter how much my mother pleaded or cajoled, preferring to stay up … More Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
Hubby recently confessed to an affair with a younger woman, who became pregnant. That was nine years ago and the child, a boy called Luca, is now eight. Hubby still visits the woman, Emily, and rents a flat for her, though he swears he doesn’t love her and maintains contact only because of Luca. I … More The Sacred and Profane Love Machine by Iris Murdoch
I’m a nightmare to buy books for. If I really want to read it, nine times out of ten I’ll already have it; if I don’t really want to read it…well, there’s always a permanent backlog of ones I really do want to read next to my bed. I’m even worse when it comes to … More Miscellanea
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor, Rich Man, Poor Man, Ploughboy, Thief – And what about a Cowboy, Policeman, Jailer, Engine-driver, Or Pirate Chief? What about a Postman – or a Keeper at the Zoo? What about the circus Man who lets the people through? Or the man who plays the organ, and the other man who … More The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
Back when I was learning the rules of football watching Match of the Day with my Dad, referee’s assistants were called linesmen, time added on at the end of the game was called injury time and there wasn’t a female in sight. Not on the pitch, nor pitch-side, nor in the studio. Football was something … More Injury Time by Beryl Bainbridge
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