Shelf help

GH favourite Val Mcdermid shares the books that make her laugh, cry and think. She’s appearing at the Bloody Scotland crime writing festival on 21 September talking about her latest novel,

Broken Ground.

◆ THE LAST BOOK THAT MADE ME LAUGH No one writes like MICK HERRON. His novels, including his latest, LONDON RULES, are so cleverly put together and, at times, extremely funny. He’s a total one-off.

◆ THE LAST BOOK THAT MADE ME CRY I don’t normally cry at books, but I’d built up such a personal relationship with the characters in MICHAEL ROBOTHAM’S crime series that his latest, THE OTHER WIFE, got me. It’s genuinely shocking, and I’m not easily shocked!

◆ THE BOOK THAT CHANGED THE WAY I THINK A friend recommended SEXUAL POLITICS by KATE MILLETT when I was at Oxford reading English in 1973. I felt like my head exploded. It made me a feminist.

◆ THE BOOK THAT GOT ME THROUGH A DIFFICULT TIME I read FOUR QUARTETS by T.S. ELIOT after I first properly got my heart broken and found the way he describes the circularity of time reassuring. I’ve come back to it many times. Jeremy Irons reads the audiobook; it’s wonderful.

◆ THE BOOK I GIVE OTHERS SCOTLAND THE DREICH by ALAN MCCREDIE. I love it because books about Scotland are usually all pictures of castles but this is the mean streets of Scotland in the rain. I like wrong-footing people!

◆ To buy tickets to Bloody Scotland crime writing festival (21-23 September), visit bloodyscotland.com