DUGALD BRUCELOCKHART

A Short History of Nearly Everything – Bill Bryson Every 18 months since about 2008 I reach out for my copy of Bryson’s majestic opus. It’s my go-to read – usually in the hibernating winter months – when it has the same effect on me as standing by the sea; I’m simultaneously exhilarated and reassured to know I’m merely a tiny cog in a vast machine that is ultimately going in circles on the road to nowhere. Bryson’s short history is also stupendously fascinating and, at times, absolutely hilarious, so when we entered lockdown, I once again reached for this book for solace. As expected, I found that dipping into it two or three times in the week kept me sane.

Report to Greco – Nikos Kazantzakis

Having been to school in Cyprus, spent many holidays in Greece, and undergone a solid indoctrination into the complete works of Gerald Durrell (in particular, My Family and Other Animals, read to me and my brother by our mother when we were stationed in Nicosia) I am somewhat of a Grecophile. So this fictionalised autobiographical odyssey is both breathtakingly beautiful and inspiring. I have dog-eared so many pages, blinded by his turn of phrase, that I keep losing my place and now type his lyrical enlightenments onto an ever-lengthening Word Doc on my Mac. One day we will find out that he was Shakespeare’s Grecian twin (okay, a few hundred years apart, but – spiritually so. Equally talented, certainly. And I’m sure Bill Bryson could cite a wormhole reference that might support the anomaly).

Box 88 – Charles Cumming

I’ve just finished reading a proof copy of this and was blown away by it. No other spythriller writer has the same ability to engage and immerse the reader to the extent that you feel you’re writing the story as you read it. Aside of being fiendishly well plotted, Box ’88 is sophisticated, thrilling, and unputdownable – I can’t give away anything due to spoiler alert (and of course I’d have to shoot you), but I feel ‘Box 88’ may be his best yet. If you can’t get your hands on a proof copy (mine is already doing a merry dance around friends and family) you will have to wait until October, when it is published.

Dugald Bruce-Lockhart’s debut novel, The Lizard, is out now, published by Muswell Press.