Jane Garvey will be taking part in the Stratford Literary Festival on 12 November.
We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea by Arthur Ransome (1940)
I’ve no idea why I loved this book so much, but I know I did. It’s one of the Swallows and Amazons series, and involves an accidental trip to Belgium. I found it absolutely hair-raising – I’m not exactly intrepid myself so it probably petrified me.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Red Fox £7.99; The Week Bookshop £5.99
Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell (1933)
I have a very clear memory of reading this in the toilet at a party when I was a teenager. I went through a phase of reading everything George Orwell had ever written. I used to find enjoying myself quite difficult, I think, and imagine old George was probably the same.
Penguin £9.99; The Week Bookshop £7.99
Frost in May by Antonia White (1933)
This is a 1930s novel reissued by Virago in the late 1970s, and another teenage favourite of mine. I wasn’t a Catholic, but I was absolutely intrigued by the descriptions of a convent education. It’s a feminist classic in any number of ways but I’m not sure I knew it at the time.
Virago £8.99; The Week Bookshop £7.99
Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman (2001)
This series of books by Malorie Blackman turned my eldest daughter into a reader. She picked up the first one on a family holiday and barely spoke for three days; she was so engrossed. I’ve loved reading all my life: I grew up with my maternal grandmother, lost in Catherine Cookson.
Penguin £7.99; The Week Bookshop £5.99
Brave Bitsy and the Bear by Angela McAllister and Tiphanie Beeke (2004)
Some books my children liked when they were young were, to say the least, somewhat wearing. But this is a sweet story of a toy rabbit abandoned in a forest and rescued by a passing bear. It has a happy ending, thank goodness.
Out of print
-
The ‘menopause gold rush’Under the Radar Women vulnerable to misinformation and marketing of ‘unregulated’ products
-
Voting Rights Act: SCOTUS’s pivotal decisionFeature A Supreme Court ruling against the Voting Rights Act could allow Republicans to redraw districts and solidify control of the House
-
No Kings rally: What did it achieve?Feature The latest ‘No Kings’ march has become the largest protest in U.S. history
-
Roasted squash and apple soup recipeThe Week Recommends Autumnal soup is full of warming and hearty flavours
-
6 well-crafted log homesFeature Featuring a floor-to-ceiling rock fireplace in Montana and a Tulikivi stove in New York
-
Film reviews: A House of Dynamite, After the Hunt, and It Was Just an AccidentFeature A nuclear missile bears down on a U.S. city, a sexual misconduct allegation rocks an elite university campus, and a victim of government terror pursues vengeance
-
Book reviews: ‘Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife’ and ‘Make Me Commissioner: I Know What’s Wrong With Baseball and How to Fix It’Feature Gertrude Stein’s untold story and Jane Leavy’s playbook on how to save baseball
-
Rachel Ruysch: Nature Into ArtFeature Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, through Dec. 7
-
Music reviews: Olivia Dean, Madi Diaz, and Hannah FrancesFeature “The Art of Loving,” “Fatal Optimist,” and “Nested in Tangles”
-
Gilbert King’s 6 favorite books about the search for justiceFeature The journalist recommends works by Bryan Stevenson, David Grann, and more
-
Ready for the apocalypseFeature As anxiety rises about the state of the world, the ranks of preppers are growing—and changing.
