(As I am of the ‘YouTube generation’, this post was inspired by the YouTube content of Jack Edwards (check him out if you want to listen to relaxing chat about books or just want some recommendations)).

A lot of my favourite books don’t seem very well-known, I’m always telling Mum to read them because no one else has. I have written to authors three times telling them I loved their books because they seemed like the only people who would understand.

Empire of the Sun

by J.G. Ballard

This book is probably the reason I chose to study English at university. J.G. Ballard tends to write science-fiction, so much so that he practically has his own category, Ballardian, but this a semi-autobiographical novel about Ballard’s experiences as an adolescent boy in World War Two China. From surviving alone in a deserted expat neighbourhood, to the other-worldly life in a civilian prison camp, and what happens when the side you’re stuck on starts losing.

And The Band Played On

by Christopher Ward

If you’re interested in the Titanic, read this book. A story about the people left behind after the sinking, and the efforts made to recover the bodies and remember the victims; this is also the story of a man’s ‘Who Do You Think You Are? family history’ forages to learn about the bright, brave, violin-playing grandfather he never knew.

The Children Act

by Ian McEwan

A lawyer with a dilemma and a slowly failing marriage, a seriously ill teenager who gets a second chance, and the connection between these two people.

Birdsong

by Sebastian Faulks

To be honest, this choice was a bit spontaneous, but it’s a First World War novel, a friend recommended it, and it has some brilliant lines. There are three main characters. It covers pre-war during, and post-war. That’s all I’m going to say because I can’t think how to describe it without giving away too much. But here’s my favourite line to try to convince you it’s beautifully written:

‘For no reason he could tell, he found that he had opened his own arms in turn, and the two men fell upon each other’s shoulders, weeping at the bitter strangeness of their human lives.’

The Absolutist

by John Boyne

One of my favourite books ever. Set during and after the First World War, it follows Tristan Sadler as he meets the sister of Will Bancroft, his fellow soldier who was executed for cowardice. I read a review in the Guardian (see here) which criticised the portrayal of the war as ‘basic building blocks’ and this may be true but I think it can be argued that this is a book about people as much as war.

Two people I know have also read this, one by chance and one at my recommendation. They loved and disliked it respectively, but even the person who disliked it liked the fact that the characters had genuine flaws.

Maybe you have to like novels about the First World War to read this, which I of course do, but I was 16 when I first read it and I had never related to a fictional character more than I did to Tristan.

Rex vs. Edith Thompson: A Tale of Two Murders

by Laura Thompson (no relation)

The book I went to to learn more about Edith after watching the film Another Life, this was one of my favourite books of 2021. I don’t usually read non-fiction as it doesn’t tend to come in audiobook format, so it took me weeks to finish this and when it came to the trial there was a lot to take in with all the statements and facts, but I am now officially a fan of Laura Thompson’s writing and plan to read more of her books.

A comprehensive biography of Edith and those involved in her story, eloquently and passionately written by someone who fights her corner. It also looks at the social world Edith and her fellow women grew up in and how this had an impact on her life and of course, the case against her that saw her hanged. Featuring letter and trial excerpts and allusions to literature of the period, this book is a fascinating portrait of one of the most controversial trials of the 1920s.

Of course, I would tell you to read it because I fight Edith’s corner too. But even if you don’t read it for her sake or because it is about a particular period of history, it’s a true story and I think those are always worth reading.