Holiday reads
Books
CAN’T decide where to go on your holidays this year? Leafing through the pages of classic and new novels and travelogues could point you in some interesting directions. Whether you want the warm, sunny climes of Peter Mayle’s A Year In Provence, the classic architecture of Florence and Rome, in Henry James’ The Portrait Of A Lady, or to explore different cultures and climates, a handful of good reads could provide the inspiration for a bucket load of travel.
Get ready to map out your wish list of locations with these top reads...
GREECE
History buffs with a penchant for island-hopping will be glued to Victoria Hislop’s stories, transporting you to a Greece full of colour, starting with her 2005 debut novel The Island (Headline Review) – which gives a vivid description of Cretan life, weaving in the story of Greece’s leper colony on Spinalonga. It has sold more than two million copies worldwide to date and was made into a hit Greek TV series (both Victoria and her husband, Private Eye editor Ian Hislop, had walk-on parts).
The sequel, One
August Night (Headline
Review) reveals what happened when the leper colony closed and how its inhabitants fared when they returned to life on the mainland.
For some sunsoaked escapism, try Mandy Baggot’s light-hearted romcom Staying Out For
Summer (Head Of Zeus), which sees a young nurse’s holiday in Corfu throw up some romantic possibilities with the village doctor.
FRANCE Fancy a Parisian city break? The Caretakers (Little, Brown, out Apr 12)
the debut novel from Amanda Bestor-Siegal focuses on several dynamic women in a wealthy suburb of Paris and an event that changes their lives, told through six characters who are living very different city existences. Film rights have already been snapped up by actress Emma Stone’s production company. Meanwhile, Peter Mayle’s classic memoir A Year In Provence (Penguin), in which he charts his funny and sometimes fraught experiences of moving into a 200-year-old stone farmhouse in Southern France, will bring a huge ray of sunshine to travellers and non-travellers alike.
ITALY
As a former travel guide in Rome who lived in Italy for many years, Donna Leon has an insider’s eye for detail. Her new novel Give Unto Others
(Hutchinson Heinemann, out March 3),
in which she examines the corruption within an Italian charitable organisation, weaves in the magnificent architecture of Venice, the constant, mouth-watering presence of food, the loving and loyal Brunetti family, and a sense of menace lurking around the corner. Timeless classic novels which will have you salivating over Italy include E M Forster’s A Room With A View (Penguin Classics), where a young woman’s repressed, rigid upbringing is thrown off balance when she visits Florence, a city which offers a wealth of romantic opportunities; and Henry James’
Lady (William Collins), featuring truly beautiful descriptions of both Florence and Rome.
The Portrait Of A NORWAY Dune (Hodder Paperbacks)
is a sci-fi book, but Stadlandet in Norway stands in for the stark, inhospitable, windswept planet of Caladan in director Denis Villeneuve’s recent film adaptation of author Frank Herbert’s epic 1965 novel.
The exposure boosted tourism to the region, but as well as re-imagining the book’s dramatic setting, visitors may also want to follow the winding Atlantic Ocean Road, as another film and literary icon James Bond does in No Time To Die.
AFRICA
Anyone planning a safari should pick up a copy of The Elephant Whisperer by Lawrence
Anthony (Pan), a
South African conservationist who accepted a herd of
‘rogue’ elephants to his Thula Thula game reserve. Risking his life to bond with the elephants, he assumes a hugely special relationship with the herd, the wise matriarch Nana and her warrior sister Frankie.
This ultimately heart-warming recollection sheds great light on the emotional intelligence of these majestic animals.
INDIA
A land full of colour, culture and with a fascinating history, many writers have been drawn to the dramatic canvas of India. Arundhati Roy was awarded the Booker Prize in 1997 for her first novel The God Of Small Things (Harper Perennial), a story about Rahel and Estha, twins growing up among the banana vats and peppercorns of their blind grandmother’s factory, amid scenes of political turbulence in Kerala.
And who could resist Salman Rushdie’s acclaimed Booker Prizewinning second novel, Midnight’s Children (Vintage Classics)?
This much-loved historical fantasy reflects on the issues India faced post-independence, including culture, language and religion.
CARIBBEAN
It’s not all fly and flop in the Caribbean, as readers discover in Sharma Taylor’s What A Mother’s Love Don’t Teach You (Virago, out July 7). It’s a novel set in Kingston, Jamaica, about a woman who is reunited with her son, 18 years after giving him up as a baby to the rich couple she worked for before they left.
A story of belonging and identity, it brings together a chorus of voices to evoke Jamaica’s dance halls and criminal underworld, at the heart of which is a mother’s love for her son.
STAYCATION SETTINGS
From the Shetlands to Cornwall, no literary stone will be left unturned, whether you want to investigate Brighton with top crime writer Peter James, through his famous Det Supt Roy Grace, or Edinburgh with Rebus creator Ian Rankin, or disappear into romance and relationships in rugged Cornwall with Fern Britton, Judy Finnigan and a raft of other novelists. If you’re keen on exploring Britain’s lost cities, Matthew Green’s factual book Shadowlands: A Journey Through Britain (Faber &
Faber, Mar 17) takes you on an atmospheric tour of ghost towns and disappeared villages, from a Neolithic settlement in Orkney buried in sand, to a medieval city swept from a shingle island.
The Island Home by
Libby Page (Orion) is set on a remote Scottish island in the Hebrides, based on the Isle of Eigg, in which a woman returns with her daughter to the place where she grew up and where her family might mend itself. Her descriptions of the dramatic landscapes, the black lochs, coves and jagged hills will make you feel like you’ve been there – or make you want to visit. Continuing the Scottish theme, Malcolm Alexander’s Close To Where The Heart Gives Out
(Michael O’Mara) charts the true story of a young vet’s move from suburban Glasgow to Eday (population 125) in the Orkneys, where he provides a moving account of island life.
Those considering visiting the east of England should look out for writer Elly Griffiths, who makes Norfolk a central part of the storyline in each of her bestselling Dr Ruth Galloway crime novels, the latest of which, The Locked Room (Quercus),
sees her archaeologist sleuth helping solve a series of mysterious deaths. Award-winning crime writer Ann Cleeves, well known for creating the Northumberland detective Vera and the Shetland Island mystery series, has her sights set on North Devon for her latest book, The Heron’s Cry
It’s set against a glorious summer packed with tourists, where Detective Matthew Venn investigates an elaborately staged murder among a group of artists. And of course, who could forget beautiful Ireland, the setting of so many inspiring reads – from Sally Rooney’s emotionally charged Normal People
(Faber & Faber), about the extremely complex relationship between teenagers Connell and Marianne set in and around the city of Dublin, to bestselling author Marian Keyes’ latest clever exploration of families, friendships and relationships in Again, Rachel (Michael Joseph), her much anticipated sequel to the hit Rachel’s Holiday.
(Pan Macmillan).
WHETHER IT’S ITALY, AFRICA OR SOMEWHERE CLOSER TO HOME, THE BEAUTIFUL SETTINGS IN BOOKS CAN SPARK WANDERLUST IN ALL OF US, SAYS HANNAH STEPHENSON