MUST-READ BOOKS

WRITE, BUT FIND TIME FOR READING TOO

It takes a long long time to write a full length novel. Barbara Cartland, if anyone remembers her, used to write one a week but they were formulaic and very short.

For most of us writers the journey can take six months, a year, two years or even more, and other activities - housework, physical exercise, a social life, cooking a meal from scratch, walking the dog, tend to be scrappy or even non-existent.

So it's tempting to give up on reading books by other authors, when you could use that time to write another few chapters of your own book. But reading a really good book is such an intense pleasure that I for one can't give up on it. So here are a few I've read recently which I would like to recommend:

THE SECRETS WE KEEP and THE GIRL WHO JUST APPEARED

Both by Jonathan Harvey, author, playwright and television scriptwriter. His plots are ingenious, with unexpected twists and turns, and (like myself) he's from Liverpool, so there's an element of that quirky laconic humour throughout.

MAN AT THE HELM 

This is Nina Stibbe's debut book of fiction. Two children set out to find a new man for their dysfunctional Mum with hilarious and sometimes outrageous consequences.

THE CUCKOO CALLING  Robert Galbraith (aka J K Rowling)

I didn't enjoy The Casual Vacancy, J K Rowling's first assay into adult fiction (depressing and dreary), but this, the first of a crime series featuring an ex-Afghanistan veteran private eye, is a winner. The writing is humorous and accessible, as easy to read as her Harry Potter books, but definitely for the grown ups.