BEST BOOKS ABOUT SUMMER

The bestselling author suggests key novels to help you through the trickier times in life. WE’VE been blessed with some glorious days already this year, but that’s, of course, because half-term is now over and children are being corralled into classrooms, unable to turn their faces towards the light.

As all good meteorologists — and parents — know, exam weather and actual summer are different things. Chances are, by the time schools break up, we’ll be plunged into darkness and if you want hot weather you’ll have to up sticks and find it. Or failing that, recapture it in a book.

Maggie O’Farrell’s Instructions For A Heatwave is set in that one summer when the Mediterranean deigned to come to us, for a change. It’s 1976, the sun bears down, England crackles, baths are banned. And a devoted father of three goes out to buy a newspaper and never comes back.

His Irish immigrant family are demented, with the heat and worry, although his wife seems oddly unsurprised. Another sound exploration of family from O’Farrell, this one dripping with the atmosphere of the time.

Paul Morris is dripping with perspiration, and it’s not just because of the Greek island heat. The dislikeable narrator of Sabine Durrant’s terrific Lie With Me is a rogue and a sponger, who moves in on families like a stray tomcat.

When Alice, a nice, well-off widow, invites him to join them in their villa, he’s delighted — a fortnight of free meals and free sex. After all, he is the clever, manipulative one; these new ‘friends’ are the suckers. It turns out there’s a catch or two. On that hot, stressful holiday, Paul realises that his summer — and his life — are not working out quite as planned.

The Summer Book is a gentler, seasonal read. Tove Jansson was the genius who blessed us with the Moomins, and this short, lyrical offering was her favourite of her adult works. A girl and her grandmother spend their holiday on a Finnish island. And here is summer as it should be: all freedom, fun and love.