Summer Books and a date for your diary
Love books? Then you'll want to read these (and if you live in Hampshire go to this....)
My dear friend Natasha Poliszczuk is the Queen of Books. A journalist and Books Editor by trade (we met across a magazine desk many moons ago), she is the first person I'll turn to if I want a reading recommendation. Thankfully, she has made her knowledge accessible to all via her beautiful Instagram account and Bookish, her free weekly newsletter, which is not only packed with books, but also with other wonderful finds and thoughts. She's not only a great reader, but also a great writer - do sign up to it here.
Two of the books she has raved to me about are The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn (which I devoured and adored) and The Garnett Girls by Georgina Moore (which I plan to devour and adore). Read on to see why they should be on your book list. If the idea of them grabs you or if you have already read and loved them, then book a ticket pronto for 'An Audience with Georgina Moore and Joanna Quinn in conversation with Natasha Poliszczuk' on 22nd June in Winchester, which offers wine, book chat and promises to be a truly lovely evening.
The Garnett Girls - Georgina Moore
This family saga will fill the Mary-Wesley-shaped hole in your life! It has all the ingredients: three sisters bound to each other and their charismatic mother by a tangled, fractious emotional web; a ramshackle old seaside family home; an atmospheric setting (the Isle of Wight tourist board should hire Moore now); a dark secret from the past which threatens the happiness of the present; and a gorgeous, difficult, alluring older woman - long live sexy grannies! It’s evocative, immersive and altogether delicious. You may well find yourself incapable of putting it down.
The Whalebone Theatre - Joanna Quinn
The Whalebone Theatre - Joanna Quinn
A sweeping historical epic and a properly rollicking story. For a debut novel, it is hugely ambitious in scope and scale, but Joanna Quinn pulls it off. It follows the fortunes of the three spirited Seagrave siblings – Cristabel, Flossie and Digby - from the carefree interwar summers of their childhood through to wartime espionage adventures. . It is a big, bold, generous novel - the type of book you finish with great reluctance.
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