During my school years I was lucky enough to be taught by some brilliant English teachers, the kind who fostered a love of language and literature. There was Mr L in Year 5 who made a game out of memorising Tennyson’s The Lady of Shalott (“From either side the river lie / Long fields of … More The Moor’s Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie
At the time of writing it’s only two days ago (with Hubby on a boys-night out) that I binge-watched Series 5 of Ghosts on BBC iPlayer – the British series, not the US version. If you’ve never seen it, the premise is that a young couple, Alison and Mike Cooper, live in the huge, run-down … More Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel
I was introduced to the concept of fasting at an early age. My mum and older sister would fast (or ‘abstain’ from food) for the hour before we went to mass on Sunday. In church we’d sing hymns with lines like “help me to mortify my flesh”. Lent was book-ended by fasting on Ash Wednesday … More The Wonder by Emma Donoghue
When I was growing up I lived with a ghost. I know some people will think that sounds crazy. I know some people will think I imagined it. Yet the experience was real. Our house-ghost wasn’t an apparition, it was a presence: being alone in a room, then knowing someone had entered although no-one was … More The Beginner’s Goodbye by Anne Tyler
I stumbled across this strange, little book by chance on BBC Radio 4’s Book at Bedtime. A man is writing a book about Ted Hughes. His wife dies in an accident, leaving him to raise their two small boys alone. Four or five days after her death (“the friends and family who had been hanging … More Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter
I’m seven years old, maybe eight. I’m in the kitchen with my mother. She’s cooking; I’m studying a box of teabags on the kitchen dresser. The teabags are made by Ceylon Tea and the picture on the box is strange and beautiful: pretty young women in brightly-coloured saris, blue, red, and pink, smiling among bright … More The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka
Ten years ago I went on a mini-tour of China. In Shanghai, Beijing, and Xian the tour guide asked us not to leave the hotel in the evening – she was afraid we’d get lost. When we reached Guilan, it was a different story. There was an evening market we might like to explore, she … More Continent by Jim Crace
I first fell in love with a book when I was five. It was a Ladybird Book called Chicken Licken, a tale of a little chicken who creates panic among the other birds (Henny-Penny, Ducky-Lucky, Goosey-Loosey, Turkey-Lurkey etc.) by running around telling them the sky is falling down when an acorn falls on his head. … More The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
translated by Daisy Rockwell The older I get and the more I travel, the more I realise how many people hate the English. Not individual English people, you understand, but The English, with a capital T capital E. I can see why. TE have done some good in places (ask the Maltese, ask the Greeks … More Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree
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
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