One of the questions I’m asked frequently by readers and friends is ‘what do you like to read?’ or ‘what inspires you?’ I tend to read between 3-5 books a week, and thankfully have a wonderful second-hand bookshop nearby. This reading is either as part of my research for my projects, or just for entertainment. Despite writing about unusual or ‘lost histories’ I do enjoy all sorts of non-fiction and fiction (but sci-fi isn’t really my thing), though my list will most assuredly lean to the historical when I’m in ‘writing mode’. Below, I give what I think are some good books to read. I will try to update this list every 4-6 weeks:

Non-Fiction:

The Last Englishman (Faber & Faber, 2009) by Roland Chambers.
This is the winner of the prestigious Biographers’ Club Best First Biography prize, and proof that biography remains an enthralling art when executed to perfection as Roland Chambers has done. This is the little known story of Arthur Ransome’s love affair with Russia and career as a spy that shows a completely different aspect to one of our best loved children’s book authors. It is a must read!

The Magnificent Mrs Tennant (Yale University Press, 2009) by David Waller is a truly magical glimpse at a Victorian society hostess and her quest to marry her daughters well. Meticulously researched from original letters, Waller has discovered links between the unknown Mrs Tennant and Gustav Flaubert as well as the workings of her London “Salon” that hosted such luminaries as Gladstone, Mark Twain, and many others. It is a marvelous read, and I highly recommend it – this was the runner-up for the Best First Biography Prize.

Love Child (Bloomsbury, 2009) by Allegra Huston is the sensitive and thought-provoking portrait of a woman searching back through her troubled childhood. As the adopted daughter of film director John Huston, Allegra Huston gives us a touching glimpse of the pain and longing felt by a child trying to figure out why she doesn’t quite belong and her successful journey to discovering who she really is. It is a tender, forgiving and loving portrait of a difficult childhood.
Dear Fatty (Cornerstone, 2008) by Dawn French. It has become a cliché in Britain to call someone in the entertainment industry a ‘national institution’ – but Dawn French truly is. Who would have thought that she could also win our hearts as a biographer, making us laugh and cry with her as she writes her letters to those people who have touched her life? She might claim that she never reads, but boy can she write!

 Fiction:

The White Queen (Simon & Schuster, 2009) by Philippa Gregory is the first novel in her Plantaganet series. She has chosen one of the most controversial figures in British history with Elizabeth Woodville to champion, but of course does so with her usual aplomb and eye to historical detail.

Wolf Hall (Fourth Estate, 2009) by Hilary Mantel is of course the winner of the Man Booker Prize for 2009. As a hefty tome that charts the life and times of Thomas Cromwell, Mantel’s portrayal of Henry VIII’s court and Cromwell as a man is spellbinding. (Though her view of Sir Thomas More is revisionist, it remains highly compelling.) It is such riveting reading, that I would place it amongst my five favourite books.