What Pupils and Staff Are Reading This Summer: 4

As we approach the end of the summer term, PGS pupils and staff reveal what they are planning to read over this summer holiday. 

Andrew Milford (ASM)

For me, the summer holidays are a time for getting lost in fiction . . . of the historical variety, of course! There are two novels which I have been saving since Christmas and am really looking forward to reading this summer. 

Firstly, V2 by Robert Harris. Set in the winter of 1944, it tells the story of the V2 rocket attacks on London from the viewpoints of a German scientist working on the rocket programme and a young British officer in the WAAF tasked with working out the location of the launch sites. Harris is one of my favourite novelists, writing exciting thrillers against the backdrop of major historical events. I'm sure V2 will be excellent, but if you haven't read any of Harris' novels before I can also highly recommend his brilliant debut Fatherland, as well as Pompeii and the Cicero trilogy, which begins with Imperium. 

The second novel I will be reading is The Evening and the Morning by Ken Follett, the latest instalment in his series of Kingsbridge novels. These novels are very long, but don't let that put you off: they are immensely enjoyable and readable, telling the story of the fictional Wessex town of Kingsbridge and its people. The Evening and the Morning is the prequel to the first book in the series, The Pillars of the Earth, which is an epic tale of the building of the fictional Kingsbridge Cathedral. I know it doesn't sound that exciting, but, trust me, it is superb, albeit perhaps not for the faint-hearted: it really brings medieval England to life. In places, the Kingsbridge novels don't quite stand up to scrutiny in terms of historical accuracy, but this is fiction - and, when it is this good, I really don't mind at all. 

Miranda Worley (MJW)

I'm reading Camberwell Beauty by Jenny Eclair.  I've been saving it as a treat, having binge-read ALL of her other books during the first lockdown last year on my Kindle.  This summer I'm going to read an actual book version on paper...I've had more than enough of reading screens for a few weeks.  Jenny Eclair always makes me laugh out loud, her characters' lives are perfectly observed, and I usually feel better about my own life after reading her books. I'm hoping to get tickets for her current tour too, rescheduled to this autumn.

Bryony Hart (BCH)

This summer I am really looking forward to reading last year’s Women’s Fiction Prize winner Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell. The novel is about the death of William Shakespeare’s son Hamnet, which apparently provoked him to write the famous tragedy Hamlet. However, the novel doesn’t centre on this tragic event.  Being the WFP winner, the story actually revolves around Hamnet’s mother, Agnes. I started reading it last week and already it is clear that this is going to be a story that explores the female experiences of courtship, motherhood and being defined by a patriarchal society. I love how the famous bard barely features in this story – much like recent novels such as Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker where famous historical male figures are no longer centre stage, and the female characters are given the lead role.

Another book that I hope to read this summer is The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett.  This was recommended to me by Mrs Donald after we had talked with much enthusiasm about Girl, Women, Other by Bernadine Evaristo - we both loved the multiple narrative strands of this story that charted 12 female voices, which then came together in a Dalloway-esque party. From what I have read, Bennett’s novel is another one of those that has multiple narrative strands that capture the generations of a family from the Deep South to California between the 1950s and 1990s, and centres on the themes of race, the past, and human experience.

 I have a number of books from the library – Sylvia Plath’s new biography, a few books on education and learning, and The Understory by Richard Powers.  I have already read a few chapters of the latter book and have been desperately hoping the single chestnut tree survives!  If you have read it, you’ll know what I am on about. It is a beautifully crafted novel and I love how the narrative skims over human experience in deference to the story of nature.

 I am sure there will be a load of children’s books on this list as well. I am currently reading Bad Dad with my son who is quietly obsessed by David Walliams – he already has the new novel Mega Monster.  I am also reading Pages and Co: Tilly and the Story of Maps by Anna James with my daughter. These books are absolute genius and we’ve loved how they dip in and out of the classics, to the point that my daughter ended up reading The Secret Garden and Anne of Green Gables.