The writer and broadcaster picks four of his favourites. His next novel, "The Two Roberts", will be published by Canongate in September 2025.
May Day
This inspiring collection speaks directly to our fractured and fractious moment and offers a way out. Raised to believe in the power of protest by her adoptive activist parents, Jackie Kay recounts a lifetime of marching – against wars, against racism but always for love. Her poems contain anger but aren't angry; they contain grief but never surrender to despair.
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Available on The Week Bookshop
The Color Purple
Alice Walker, 1982
This story of Celie and Nettie, two sisters torn apart in Depression-era Georgia, is my touchstone. It gave me courage. Like Celie, I faced abuse at home and hatred in the world. I felt ugly, alone and afraid. Reading Celie's story, in words that sounded spoken, made me believe her and myself.
Available on The Week Bookshop
There Are Rivers in the Sky
Elif Shafak, 2024
I can't stop thinking about this epic novel, stretching from the cruel splendour of Mesopotamia to Victorian London and the environmental catastrophe of now. Elif Shafak charts one drop of water across time and space – from falling as rain on a king's head, to falling as a snowflake on a baby boy who will grow up to uncover a poem that changes history. Water remembers. People forget. That's the tragedy at the heart of this incredible story about all the ways we (dis)connect.
Available on The Week Bookshop
Some Men in London: QueerLife 1945-1959 & 1960-1967, Vols. 1 & 2
Peter Parker, 2024
These astonishing anthologies take us from VE Day to 1967, when homosexuality was decriminalised in England and Wales (but not Scotland or NI). We meet ordinary men and famous faces such as John Gielgud. Parker skilfully synthesises the raw material of history – newspapers, diaries, letters – and a story emerges of a community with its own culture and language, thriving despite unjust laws and moral panics.
Available on The Week Bookshop
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China’s single mothers are teaming upUnder the Radar To cope with money pressures and work commitments, single mums are sharing homes, bills and childcare
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Employees are branching out rather than moving up with career minimalismThe explainer From career ladder to lily pad
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‘It is their greed and the pollution from their products that hurt consumers’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
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‘Mexico: A 500-Year History’ by Paul Gillingham and ‘When Caesar Was King: How Sid Caesar Reinvented American Comedy’ by David Margolickfeature A chronicle of Mexico’s shifts in power and how Sid Caesar shaped the early days of television
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Homes by renowned architectsFeature Featuring a Leonard Willeke Tudor Revival in Detroit and modern John Storyk design in Woodstock
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Film reviews: ‘Hamnet,’ ‘Wake Up Dead Man’ and ‘Eternity’Feature Grief inspires Shakespeare’s greatest play, a flamboyant sleuth heads to church and a long-married couple faces a postmortem quandary
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We Did OK, Kid: Anthony Hopkins’ candid memoir is a ‘page-turner’The Week Recommends The 87-year-old recounts his journey from ‘hopeless’ student to Oscar-winning actor
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The Mushroom Tapes: a compelling deep dive into the trial that gripped AustraliaThe Week Recommends Acclaimed authors team up for a ‘sensitive and insightful’ examination of what led a seemingly ordinary woman to poison four people
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‘Chess’feature Imperial Theatre, New York City
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‘Notes on Being a Man’ by Scott Galloway and ‘Bread of Angels: A Memoir’ by Patti Smithfeature A self-help guide for lonely young men and a new memoir from the godmother of punk
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6 homes built in the 1700sFeature Featuring a restored Federal-style estate in Virginia and quaint farm in Connecticut
