Best books… Helen Edmundson
The award-winning playwright and screenwriter chooses her five favourite books. Her acclaimed adaptation of Andrea Levy’s novel Small Island runs at the National Theatre until 30 April (nationaltheatre.org.uk)
The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan, 2013 (Vintage £9.99). This is the story of an Australian doctor who is haunted by memories of a love affair and by his experiences as a POW in the Far East. It’s not an easy read, but the quality of the writing is extraordinary and the emotions it provoked in me have never left.
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, 1927 (Vintage £7.99). I’m a huge Woolf fan and it’s hard to choose a favourite, but this is a little masterpiece. It centres on the Ramsay family and their visit to the Isle of Skye. As always with Woolf, there isn’t a huge narrative, but it’s a brilliant evocation of consciousness, perception, loss and our relation to time.
The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot, 1860 (Wordsworth Classics £2.99). Maggie Tulliver is one of my favourite literary heroines. She is so passionate, intelligent and impulsive; and her struggle to square her nature with society’s expectations of how a woman should behave is agonising.
The Color Purple by Alice Walker, 1982 (W&N £8.99). The story of Celie, a black teenager living in the Southern states of the US in the 1900s, who is abused and controlled by men. The novel is really about Celie’s battle for selfdetermination, driven by her profound love of her sister and her revelatory relationship with the jazz singer Shug Avery. I read it at university and it opened my eyes to the black experience in America and the legacy of slavery.
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, 1867 (Penguin £9.99). I’ve done two adaptations of War and Peace. Part history, part philosophy, part novel, at its heart are four people trying to live their lives against the terrible backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars. It feels constantly relevant, particularly the idea of how dangerous it is when one person decides to exert their will over millions of others, no matter what the consequences.
Titles in print are available from The Week Bookshop on 020-3176 3835. For out-of-print books visit biblio.co.uk