ON MY BEDSIDE TABLE

Bryony Gordon

With her memoir, MAD GIRL, and MAD WORLD podcasts, Bryony Gordon has done a lot to widen the conversation about mental health – and was the person Prince Harry opened up to about the impact of losing his mother. She’s currently a judge of the Wellcome Book Prize – the winner is announced on 30 April. ◆ I had to sleep with the lights on after reading THIN AIR by MICHELLE PAVER. It’s an otherworldly ghost story set in the Himalayas in the 1930s where five Englishmen are setting out to conquer a mountain. ◆ There’s such joy in columnist DOLLY ALDERTON’S writing and I loved her first book, EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT LOVE. It’s a memoir about growing up but is one of those books that will resonate with everyone, whatever their age. It’s a lovely read that really gives you hope. ◆ So often in literature, infertility is glossed over but not in TRYING by EMILY PHILLIPS. It’s a funny, heartfelt novel about the battle to conceive a child. ◆ I think it’s great that more women are talking about their problems with alcohol in an honest way. Many people’s perception of alcoholism is a tramp in a doorway but that’s obviously not true. I found THE UNEXPECTED JOY OF BECOMING SOBER by CATHERINE GRAY fascinating because I’ve just given up drinking myself. It’s one of those books that made me feel less alone. ◆ If I was only allowed to read one author for the rest of my life, it would be STEPHEN KING. THE STAND is a big doorstop of a book but I re-read it every year. It’s set in a post-apocalyptic world where a plague is spreading and has a cast of hundreds, but he makes every strand compelling.