Diane Banks

Charles Scribner & Sons, 1917; this edition Penguin Clothbound Classics, 2023 Why? Cutting through Waterstones Piccadilly on my way to the tube after a couple of glasses of wine one hot evening this summer, I was distracted by a rather lovely front-of-store display of Penguin's highly collectible clothbound classics. I've not read nearly as much Edith Wharton as I should have done, and Summer seemed just the thing for the season. An irresistible combination of beautiful packa

First published by Victor Gollancz 1931; this edition Persephone Books 2006 Why? This was the last of my summer haul of books in the 'holiday genre', and I'd unwittingly saved the best until last. RC Sherriff is better known as a playwright and screenwriter, most famously for Journey's End, so this gentle domestic novel is something of an oddity. But goodness, it works. Enjoyment factor I can honestly say that this is one of the most enjoyable novels I've ever read. Published

First published by Constable & Co, 1929; this edition Vintage, 1988 Why? I was looking for some end-of-summer reading, and having very much enjoyed Elizabeth Bowen's The Hotel, was keen to explore more of her work. The Last September had the added intrigue of being partly autobiographical, drawing on Bowen's own upbringing in the Anglo-Irish aristocracy. Any novel about the last summer of a fading social order, preferably set in a large country house, has an eternal appeal fo

Faber, 2017 (paperback 2018) Why? I'd never actually read Sally Rooney, although, like many, I'd been gripped by the screen adaptation of Normal People during lockdown. I thought it was time to discover what all the fuss was about. Enjoyment factor I couldn't have cared less about the characters, whom I found entirely uninteresting and unremarkable. It's difficult to become absorbed in a novel when you're indifferent to the people inhabiting it. It left me thinking ... Initia

Picador, 2024 Why? I'm a devotee, but hadn't yet read his latest (I can't believe it's been two years). Enjoyment factor The "Oxford novel" - in the great tradition of Brideshead - is Hollinghurst's stock in trade. This one has all the hallmarks, and for the first half, I was as absorbed in his world as always. But this novel tries to do too much. Whilst the "outsider" theme is always a key feature of the genre, this one skewers in race, single parenthood, class, sexuality an

Allen Lane, 2026 Why? I always enjoy Adrian Wooldridge’s writing - both his books and his columns, most recently for Bloomberg. He combines historical context with a clear explanation of the present, weaving in his own opinions without leaving you in any doubt about where he stands. Above all, he's unwaveringly grounded and rational. His latest book therefore promised something very welcome: a path through a world increasingly driven by the heart rather than the head. With so

First published by Jonathan Cape, 1984; this edition Penguin Essentials, 2023 Why? Over the summer I found myself looking for books in the holiday genre, by which I mean novels in which going away is itself the point (rather than holiday reads): hotels, resorts and unfamiliar places where people are temporarily removed from the structures of their normal lives. An obvious contender was Anita Brookner’s Hotel du Lac, winner of the Booker Prize in 1984. I was ten when it was pu

First published 1944; this edition Dean Street Press, 2017 Why? A complete chance discovery when searching out yet more obscure novels from the period. I had never heard of Ursula Orange, nor Dean Street Press. It turns out that the latter has an entire imprint, Furrowed Middlebrow, devoted to rediscovering neglected women writers of the early and mid-twentieth century - which immediately feels like a rabbit hole worth disappearing down. Company in the Evening particularly ap

Tinder Press, 2010 Why? I’m always glad of an excuse to read Maggie O’Farrell, and this award-winning novel had somehow passed me by until now. I was drawn in by the promise of two parallel stories, following two women in different time periods as they navigate motherhood alongside complicated love lives and family dynamics. I grabbed it on the brilliant BookBub, to which I’ve become slightly addicted. It definitely generates additional sales. Enjoyment factor As ever with Ma

Viking, 2022 / Penguin paperbacks, 2023 Why? This is an author whom I've been meaning to read for some time. The state-of-the-nation aspect appealed, as well as the generational trajectory (following the same family from 1945 to the present day) as it aligns with the living history of my own family. Enjoyment factor .... The novel didn't live up to expectations, unfortunately! The conceit is neat, structured around key moments in our national history: VE Day, the Coronation o

Simon & Schuster, 2026 Why? A long-standing fascination with the history of media - and with the forces and personalities that shape it - made this an irresistible read. The Murdochs have loomed over the media landscape for decades, but the family drama has felt newly vivid in recent years: partly because of the latest twists in the real-life succession saga, and partly because Succession has sharpened public interest in dynastic power. Enjoyment factor I couldn't put it dow

Picador, 2011 Why? Having been mesmerised by my first Hollinghurst - The Line of Beauty - last summer despite its length and paucity of plot, I was attracted to The Stranger's Child in a second-hand bookshop recently. It had the added benefit of being a "1913 novel" - a genre of which I can never get enough - as well as promising a sweeping exploration of societal change throughout the twentieth century. Enjoyment factor This is an elusive novel, exploring how people and sto

4th Estate, 2025 Why? Of all of the London restaurateurs in recent decades, Jeremy King is the constant as regards style, elegance and class. Renowned for restoring iconic restaurants to their former glory (Le Caprice twice; the Ivy; J Sheekey; the forthcoming re-opening of Simpson's) as well as creating new concepts with imagined histories (The Delaunay; Colbert; Fischer's), King is equally as well known for his ability to curate a clientele as he is for his impeccable food,

Jonathan Cape; my copy simultaneous QPD bookclub edition, 1998 Why? A Booker winner which I've not read it, and should have done; McEwan is in the news with his new novel What We Can Know ; and, having handled the BCA account at Hodder back in the day, I can't resist the nostalgia of a QPD paperback in a second-hand bookshop. Enjoyment factor Short - and pacy. Lots of great stuff about male friendships in middle age, ego, and doing the right thing. But - the ending for which

Penguin Michael Joseph Mermaid Collection 2025; originally published by Macmillan, 1951 Why? After stumbling across Margaret Kennedy’s better-known novel The Feast in a charity shop last year - and enjoying it enormously - I was intrigued to see Lucy Carmichael revived by Penguin Michael Joseph as part of their new Mermaid series , which celebrates neglected mid-to-late twentieth-century novels by women writers. Enjoyment factor This is not as immediately engaging as The Fe

Macmillan, September 2025 Why? Tim Berners-Lee is almost unique in the history of technology in that his story is not, at heart, a business story. That alone makes him interesting. Most transformative technologies are remembered through the prism of their commercialisation rather than their invention. The internet, however, sits oddly apart: an infrastructure that now underpins vast global markets, but which began life as a modest attempt to help scientists share information

Profile, 2022 Why? I’m fascinated by the history of media - not just as nostalgia, but because every great media shift exposes how technology, culture and power really work together. I suspect that the BBC will eventually be viewed as a distinctly 20th-century institution: one of those vast post-war, mid-century projects designed to impose order, coherence and shared values after the devastation of the world wars. Alongside welfare states, national grids and public housing, i

Vintage, 2023 (first published by Chatto & Windus, 2022) Why? Anne Tyler is an author I've always meant to read, and I grabbed this on a Kindle promotion. Enjoyment factor I'd call this a very quiet novel and at no point felt myself rushing to get back to it, but at the same time, I wasn't compelled to give up. It's a multi-generational saga of an ordinary American family, spanning the late 1940s to the pandemic. The point is that the family members are not close, but neither

Penguin, 1959 (originally published by Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1957) Why? A mid-century classic which I'd not read, spotted in a second hand bookshop. I'm intrigued by anything which explores the social re-order following the War - fiction or non-fiction. Enjoyment factor This is a curious one. The protagonist is admirable for wanting to break from his working class roots, but is at the same time overly materially driven and with the tendency to objectify women. How much of thi

Bodley Head, September 2025 Why? Whatever might be said about Nick Clegg, his combination of experience at the top of politics and at the top of a global tech firm is unique, so he must have something to say that's worth a listen. Enjoyment factor This book is heavily co-written (the co-writer is duly acknowledged) and doesn't present the most succinct argument in the world, but nevertheless, it offers some valuable take-aways which haven't been given enough credit amongst a