BOOKS TO WARM THE HEART

ESPRIT DE CORPS by Lawrence Durrell

YES, he was played (beautifully) by Josh O’Connor in The Durrells on ITV. He was a writer, wildly popular in the 1960s (The Alexandria Quartet, Bitter Lemons, Justine) and he wrote these sketches of diplomatic life in 1957. They are sophisticated funny, but wonderful, and bonkers. THE FIRST MAN IN ROME by Colleen McCullough

REMEMBER The Thorn Birds? Well, this was written by the same woman. she was actually a serious academic, a doctor of neurophysiology, but she also wrote lyrics for musicals as well as international bestsellers. This novel is set in Rome in 110BC, and follows the lives of two ambitious men, Gaius marius and Lucius Cornelius sulla in and out of palaces, battlefields, tenements and bedrooms. It’s enormous — and gossipy. THE SHELTERING DESERT by Henno Martin

ONE for the man in your life. It’s the account of two senior scientists in south Africa, who were desperate to evade call-up in 1939, and fled to the namib Desert to hide. They survived for two whole years with nothing but a dog for company — and this is the story of how they managed it, especially psychologically .

GHOST WALL by Sarah Moss

BRILLIANT. Gripping. Very thought provoking. It’ll take you two hours.

MIDDLEMARCH by George Eliot

IF NOT now, when…? It’s fantastic anyway, probably the best study of human nature you will ever read, middle-class people in the middle of 19th century and in the middle of england. I dare you to pick it up…

MUM & Dad by Joanna Trollope is published by Macmillan priced £18.99 hardback and available now.