The actress picks five favourites. A life-long gardener, her self-illustrated book "Drawn to the Garden" came out this year. She shares her love of horticulture at cqgardens.com and on Instagram @cqgardens.
Hangover Square
Patrick Hamilton, 1941
Playwright and novelist Hamilton tells the story of tragicomic anti-hero alcoholic George Bone, his obsession for the casually cruel, ambitious would-be actress Netta, and the various lost souls they drink with. In this interwar psychological thriller, the writing is as clear as gin and as sharp as lemon.
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Forage
Liz Knight, 2021
A brilliant book for novice foragers, like me. Knight writes with passion, a light touch, huge knowledge and a sense of humour. There are great recipes, and lovely illustrations too, by Rachel Pedder-Smith.
Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont
Elizabeth Taylor, 1971
In this novel about old folk (people of my age) residing in a genteel hotel in west London – catered for but not yet cared for – Taylor reveals, with her trademark honesty, humour and kindness, what it is to grow old and to feel marginalised and lonely. It's hopeful and full of a gritty joy.
Jane Bown: A Lifetime of Looking
Luke Dodd, 2015
A collection of 200 photographs by this remarkable photographer. Here are "ordinary" people (who Bown lets us know are not ordinary at all) alongside the famous – Margot Fonteyn, Sinéad O'Connor and others – who are photographed being "ordinary".
The Go-Between
L.P. Hartley, 1953
I turned 16 in the famously hot summer of 1976, and this funny, tender coming-of-age story is set in a famously hot summer in the 1900s. Bullied at school, Leo is invited to stay with a friend at his family's stately home. While there, he discovers love, sexuality, deception, bravery and, most painfully, his own snobbery and small-mindedness. I think it's one of the greatest novels of all time. The British upper classes and a farmer's bum laid bare, as the Norfolk countryside slowly desiccates.
