What PGS Teachers Are Reading this Summer

The summer holidays are the perfect time to explore new books, writers and ideas. Portsmouth Point asked PGS teachers to reveal what they are going to be reading over this summer. Here, Dr Cotton, Mr Goad and Mr Wiggins share their summer selections. 


Anne Cotton

illustration from Layla and Majnun

I am hoping to be able to make inroads on the increasingly wobbly pile of books that have caught my eye in recent months – always one of the joys of the summer break. Among them are Layla and Majnun, the iconic 12th century text by Persian poet Nizami, in the edition I have which is beautifully illustrated with evocative miniature paintings. A friend shared with me From Self to Selfie, which looks to be a fascinating exploration of conceptions of the self from the Enlightenment to the present day, concluding with an examination of modern-day selfie culture. An assembly by Dr Webb earlier in the year inspired me to embark up Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye; and a conversation with a friend who has been commissioned to write a historical novel based in Pompeii reminded me of how much I enjoyed reading Mary Beard’s Pompeii quite some time ago – and that I might need to brush up on my Pompeian knowledge if I am to be of any help to her. And then I look forward to revisiting old friends: some George Eliot, some Hilary Mantel, and Virginia Woolf’s diaries, which I have always found to bring out the joy that can be found in the everyday, something that has perhaps been particularly precious in these last months.

Ben Goad

The majority of my recommendations come from my daughter; it's handy to have someone studying English Literature in the family and I would thoroughly recommend it. She has come up trumps every time so far, and I am looking forward to the latest, The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters.

There are a number of books I have started but not finished that I’m looking forward to polishing off. Mr Wiggins recommended The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci  by Jonathan Spence at our last PGS Teach Meet when we were talking about the role of images in memory formation. It is more about an extraordinary time in history when West met East in Ming dynasty China. I’m dipping in to Jim Al-Khalili and Johnjoe McFadden’s Life on the Edge on a chapter-by-chapter basis. It seems to work well like that. I’ve just finished one on the role of Quantum Biology in explaining the sense of smell.

I am going to see if I can borrow Wildwood, a journey through trees, by Roger Deacon from my son. He has been gently introducing me to his passion for these majestic plants and I’d like to know more.

Finally, and I suspect that I have overrun, anything by Neil Gaiman. Poppy bought me Neverwhere earlier in the year and I’ve fallen in love with his writing. He creates such extraordinary characters with gripping stories and I feel like a bit of escapism this summer.

Henry Wiggins

My favourite recent novel of recent years was Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain so one book that I’m looking forward to reading this summer is his non-fiction reportage account of the 2016 presidential election campaign Beautiful Country Burn Again as a good primer for the upcoming fun-and-games in November.

I am also really looking forward to reading Music from Big Pink by John Niven which is a novel set during one of my favourite musical eras, late 60s and early 70s rock music and fictionalises a story centred around the making of The Band’s first album and features a walk-on cast including Bob Dylan and George Harrison. On a similar musical theme, but this time a non-fiction read One Two Three Four, The Beatles in Time by Craig Brown looks like a really interesting and unconventional biography of the most famous rock group of them all.

Don DeLillo is one of the great American novelists and I am also planning on reading another of his works which, unlike some of his others, also has the advantage of seeming to be relatively short: End Zone, a black comedy about American Football (another one of my passions) and the threat of Nuclear War (not a passion, that would be weird, but of interest) in 1970s college-town America.

Finally, Mick Herron’s Slough House thrillers are all wonderful; very funny and a fairly savage satire on modern Britain at times. Jackson Lamb is a brilliant anti-hero; a George Smiley but with more disgusting personal habits. I am looking forward to reading book #6 in the series, Joe Country, when I get a chance to over the summer.