Jennie Godfrey can’t finish a single book from which hugely popular genre?
What Book…
Author, Jennie Godfrey
… are you reading now?
Dead Heat by Sabine Durrant (out on March 12) which is a very classy thriller and is giving me serious Patricia Highsmith vibes.
Set in Greece and unfolding over a long, hot summer, it is also letting me escape to the sunshine, at least in my mind.
As a writer and part-time bookseller, I am the go-to person for book recommendations for all my friends and family and this is going straight on this year’s list.
… would you take to a desert island?
Persuasion by Jane Austen. It. Has. Everything. It is funny, sad, contains biting social/class commentary, and is desperately romantic while also being outspoken about the position of women in the society of the time.
I love everything Austen has written, but Persuasion for me is her most thoughtful, emotionally complex novel. This is the ‘second- chance trope’ done masterfully. I find something new in it every time I read it (and that is more than 20 times).
… first gave you the reading bug?
Relatable: The Secret Garden showed Jennie that northern, working class children could be represented in literature
I was so obsessed with books as a child that my mum took me to the doctor, as she was worried about me reading too much and not sleeping enough! I read every Enid Blyton book I could, from cover to cover, more than once, but I would say the book that confirmed me as a lifelong reader was The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett.
While I loved Enid Blyton stories, the children in them were all posh. The Secret Garden, and the character of Dickon in particular, showed me that children like me (northern, working class) deserved a place in books too.
This story of the wonderfully spoilt and obnoxious orphan Mary Lennox, who learns to love through being transplanted to Yorkshire and discovering both the natural world and the power of friendship, still stands up when you read it as an adult.
… left you cold?
I am taking a deep breath as I type this (and cheating slightly as it is a whole genre) but I just don’t get romantasy. This isn’t snobbery. I really want to like it, and love that these books are hugely popular and beloved by so many but I have failed to finish any. I lose interest as soon as I am faced with dragons and fairies.
The Barbecue at No. 9 by Jennie Godfrey (Hutchinson Heinemann £16.99, 400pp) is available now from the Mail Bookshop