What PGS Staff Are Reading This Summer: 1

 Tom Fairman

I am a big fan of an epic fantasy series and having spent a few years reading the Wheel of Time series which was brilliant, I was searching for a new one. Therefore, although I know it is not technically new, I started the Game of Thrones series. I am currently on book 2 so will be working my way through these hopefully before the next book comes out. Having never watched the TV shows, the complex histories and political intrigue alongside the usual magic and battles are fascinating (though I could live without the unnecessary gratuitous descriptions). Depending on how far I get this may be my reading for next summer too!

Alex Casillas-Cross

Stories for Rebel Girls will definitely be a daily read in our household this summer as well as the necessary daily read of the Adventures of Paddington. But given a bit of ‘me time’ I hope to read Homeland by Fernando Aramburu (and if I am feeling courageous enough the original in Spanish Patria) which is a story about The Basque Country, Spain 2011 and the effect/ threat ETA had on the people at this time. Dominion by CJ Sansom is also waiting a read, hopefully opening up further books by the same author. Dominion offers a story of GB under authoritarian German rule as if the Second World War was still raging between Russia and Germany. Also hoping to embark in reading a new author John Boyne The Heart’s Invisible Furies following recommendations from friends I respect!

Emma Kirby

The book I have just started and will take me into the first week or so of the summer is the The Promise by Damon Galgut (winner of the Booker Prize, 2021). So far, I’m hooked. It tells the story of a white South African family living in a remote farm outside Pretoria. A promise has been broken after a funeral, and the fall-out for the family is underway. This is a book about trauma and guilt, set against the back-drop of apartheid. However, it’s also wry and funny, surprising and inventive. The narrative structure itself is fascinating: the narrator hops between characters in a way that feels fresh and bold. 

Henry Wiggins

The Sound of Being Human: How Music Shapes our Lives by Jude Rogers

I really enjoy reading non-fiction about the history and making of music, especially contemporary pop and rock from the mid-1950s onwards. This book is part personal memoir and part history of twelve great songs that mean a lot to the author.  

Islands of Abandonment: Life in the Post-Human Landscape by Cal Flyn

There is something fascinating about abandoned landscapes; whole communities, towns or cities that have been deserted for whatever reason. What is also extraordinary about these places is how often nature returns to ‘take back’ these areas and how rapidly a diverse flora and fauna ecosystem can return when left alone. This book looks at some abandoned places on earth – Chernobyl, parts of Detroit, even areas of Scotland and France closer to home – and charts their history and their current state as they adapt to a ‘post-human’ environment. All sounds a bit apocalyptic but is apparently a more optimistic and hopeful read about the resilience of the planet than one might initially think.

France: An Adventure History by Graham Robb

Alternative, ‘travelogue’ histories – especially of parts of Europe – have become quite popular recently (see also Germania by Simon Winder) and are always very readable and stuffed full of interesting detail that complements the more sober histories of these nations or regions very well. Graham Robb’s previous book – The Discovery of France – was a terrific cultural history of 18th century France onwards (a country relatively unique in Europe in that it had a fairly strong centralised nation state well before the citizenry acquired a particular strong or patriotic identity of ‘being French’; in the history of state-building in Europe, the process was almost always the other way round). This book starts much earlier with Roman Gaul and will no doubt whet the appetite for a bit more travelling around the country now that we can go abroad much easier again.