PANDORA SYKES
As she releases her first essay collection, The High Low podcast host and journalist shares the reads that have shaped her
MY FAVOURITE BOOK AS A CHILD WAS...
The Twits by Roald Dahl. Dahl’s baddies are always deliciously rotten. They make you feel gleeful, not sad, which I think is quite a feat.
MY FAVOURITE CHARACTER FROM A BOOK IS...
Olive Kitteridge. Elizabeth Strout writes about her uncompromising central character so vividly that you feel like you know everything about her. I have immense sympathy for Olive’s foibles and mistakes. Like all of us, in trying to make her life easier, Olive often makes it harder.
THE BOOK I RELATE TO MOST IS...
Lucy Caldwell’s collection of short stories, Intimacies. I read it shortly after the birth of my second child, and I felt an immediate affinity with the violent emotions of new motherhood that she describes.
MY ALL-TIME FAVOURITE BOOK IS...
One Day by David Nicholls. I will never tire of it and the love story of Emma and Dexter. The controversial plot twist is a kicker, but a necessary one to stop it being too saccharine. I’ll also never forget A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, and I adore Half Of A Yellow Sun – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a fantastically evocative writer.
THE LAST BOOK THAT MADE ME CRY WAS...
When I Hit You by Meena Kandasamy. It made me cry in frustration, as it reveals the shocking truth about the acceptance of domestic abuse against women in India. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong also moved me.
THE BOOK THAT GOT ME THROUGH A DIFFICULT TIME IS...
A Manual For Heartache by Cathy Rentzenbrink. It’s a simple but wonderful book that helps with any type of loss or grief.
It is written with such warmth and truth.
MY FAVOURITE LINE FROM A BOOK IS...
‘You know more surely who you are on a strong bright day after a storm when the smallest falling leaf is stabbed with self-awareness’ from The Body Artist by Don Delillo. It feels like an encouraging metaphor for 2020!
THE BOOK EVERYONE SHOULD READ IS...
The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read by Philippa Perry.
It was life-changing in how I approached my relationships with both my parents and my children.
How Do We Know We’re Doing It Right? (Hutchinson) by Pandora Sykes is out now