A hot beach, a cold drink and a stack of brilliant books. Bliss

By the time you read this I will be on a Spanish beach with a chilled cerveza in one hand and a good book in the other. Since the Covid rollercoaster began, I’ve barely had the time or concentration span to read for pleasure over the last couple of years. There’s a stack of novels by my bed which I have either been too preoccupied or too knackered to read.

I decided something had to give and that something was my shoes. When I packed my suitcase ahead of my first foreign holiday since 2019, I swapped footwear for books, which turns out to be a fair swap in terms of baggage allowance.

My literary travelling companions include: Douglas Stuart’s Booker Prize-winning Shuggie Bain which has been gathering dust since Christmas 2020; Hex, inspired by the North Berwick witch trials, by the wonderful Jenni Fagan; Sally Rooney’s Normal People (no, I haven’t watched the TV version yet), The Thursday Murder Club by quiz master Richard Osman (from last Christmas’ Santa list) and Termination Shock, a dystopian “techno thriller” about climate change by New York Times bestselling author Neal Stephenson (admittedly, this might be a bit close to the bone in 37-degree heat).

If you still need help with your own summer reading list, turn to pages 14&15 where P.S. books editor Sally Mcdonald recommends the best memoirs, thrillers and feelgood novels to take on holiday. And, if you have time for a quickie, turn to pages 44&45, for a short story written exclusively for P.S. readers by the brilliant novelist Adele Parks. Chao, for now!