WHAT BOOK?

. . . are you reading now?

ARGYLLE by Elly Conway. No, it wasn’t written by Taylor Swift, although the rumours were amusing. It’s a fun, action-packed, spy-romp that doesn’t take itself too seriously. It provides fantastic entertainment and is a useful alternative to the rather depressing true-crime craze.

It’s about an author who crosses paths with a global spy syndicate, resulting in the obligatory whocan-you- trust, how-will-youescape shenanigans. Perfect for long train journeys, poolside reading and escaping reality.

. . .would you take to a desert island?

THE Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx. Well, if I’m going to be stuck on an island, the shipping news would be helpful, but this is a book I recommend to everyone. Proulx’s writing is incredible for a sense of time and place, and this story has it all.

Quoyle’s wife is killed in an accident as she’s running away with her lover. Quoyle, a journalist, moves with his children back to his family’s ancestral home in Newfoundland, where he finds work reporting on traffic accidents and the shipping news.

It’s a story about loss and hope, finding joy in the little things, mysteries and transformations, with some romance thrown in for good measure. It’s a book to savour. Proulx’s writing is truly beautiful, and this is one of those novels you can read multiple times and always enjoy. (Also, a lot of the names in the books are based on knots, as Proulx’s private joke with herself, which I loved.)

. . . first gave you the reading bug?

LORD Of The Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. It was the first book that conjured a new world in my head, so detailed and complete that I was lost in it from the first page to the last. It’s escapism at its finest. Tolkien’s characters live rent-free in my head to this day, and I’m still searching for a writer who comes close. I never did manage to learn Elvish though.

. . . left you cold?

A STUDY In Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle. This has to be a case of ‘It’s not you . . . it’s me.’ I just never got on with Sherlock Holmes. I know the fictional detective birthed a generation of brilliant sleuths, but I plodded through the pages like I was reading a physics textbook. It’s a tale of international intrigue with murders, kidnappings and desperate marriage choices, but Holmes just doesn’t do it for me. n Profile K by Helen fields (Avon, £16.99) is out now.