What Book…
…are you reading now?
I’m one of the judges on the Sunday Times Charlotte Aitken Young Writer of the Year prize (winner to be announced next March) so I’m reading boxes of books – fiction, non-fiction, poetry – by writers under the age of 35.
The standard is high but I might be in breach of the rules if I single anyone out at this stage.
In whatever reading time is left over I’m picking up and rereading a little clutch of bedside books: England’s Green by the beautifully inventive poet Zaffar Kunial; Going Sane by the psychoanalyst Adam Phillips, a man incapable of writing a dull sentence; and the latest instalment of David Kynaston’s epic social history, A Northern Wind, Britain 1962-65.
…would you take to a desert island?
Boswell’s The Life Of Samuel Johnson – there’s a whole gossipy world in there, you’d never feel short of company.
The feel of the book is somehow very loving. It’s also big – there would always be things to go back to. You could use it as a pillow. You could knock coconuts out of a tree with it. And if you decided to escape, it might buoy you up just long enough to reach the neighbouring island.
…first gave you the reading bug?
I was, and remain, a huge fan of Rosemary Sutcliff. Her historical novels for young readers (The Eagle Of The Ninth, The Queen Elizabeth Story etc) – so sweetly vivid – led me through secret doors into new worlds. I will be forever grateful to her.
A little later I also devoured Tolkien’s The Lord Of The Rings. I read it three times between the ages of 12 and 15. It has, among other virtues, a fabulous narrative energy of the kind I try to create in my own work.
…left you cold?
We need the right book at the right time, and sometimes a perfectly good book is put aside with a shrug simply because this was not its moment.
A recent example might be Annie Ernaux’s The Years. My loss, no doubt. Fortunately, books are very patient and will sit quietly on a shelf until you rediscover them.
Maria Stepanova’s In Memory Of Memory was one such book. On a first attempt I read 15 pages and abandoned it. A year later I picked it up again and became almost addicted.
This post was originally published on here
