What I read on the beach*

*there was no beach

I have a soft spot for Cally Taylor ever since I attended one of her writing workshops. She’s Bristol-based too, but the main reason to read one of her thrillers is the sheer ease with which you’ll slip through the pages. She piles the tension on and the characters will hold you while you work through the twisty plot. Great for when you want a low-effort high-impact read.

I’ve never finished a William Boyd novel without feeling I understand the world a little better. This is set in 1968, and if you like in-jokes about writers, actors, producers and directors, Boyd is his usual sharp observer. There’s a huge cast of characters but gradually three people come into focus and we see the edits they make to arrive at the final version of themselves. One can’t escape, one opts out completely, and one makes it into a tentative future. The novel is faithful to the beloved three-act structure and is divided into three sections each shorter than the last, called: Duplicity, Surrender, Escape. Very enjoyable, full of period detail that reveals the characters trapped in a strange time between war and liberation.

This was the big beast I read in the summer, and the big beast on the literary scene for a while. Fortunately for anyone keen to read it now, just out in paperback in the UK.

Naomi Klein is a well-known writer with bestsellers stacked up behind her. But that doesn’t stop people – even those who think they know better – mistaking her for also well-known writer, Naomi Wolf. Klein wonders if we can only have one Naomi in our lives, though the confusion was understandable when they were both left-of-centre feminists with brown hair writing in broadly similar fields. When Other Naomi goes over to the dark side, appearing regularly on Steve Bannon’s channels and promoting ever more dangerous conspiracies, that’s bound to have an impact on the Naomi writing this book. Klein takes that as her starting point. She examines the long history and present versions of the doppleganger: the body and the soul, the online brand and the person, the evil twin, imperialism and fascism, medicine and experimentation.

From here Klein expands her idea of the doppleganger and the book becomes more disquieting. There’s so much in here that challenged and unsettled me, though Klein is a warm and engaging writer, always completely human and humane. One chapter of the book deals with Israel and was written before the events in Israel in October 2023, but prefigures them. Klein is incisive and passionate on the plight of Palestine, for what is a two-state solution if not a doppleganger?

A haunting read, no simple answers, just more questions, with Klein’s comforting voice as a prompt.

Maintaining my unblemished record of reading the “big” reads slightly too late. This was everywhere when it first came out, and rightly so but you won’t feel the same about the business of books after reading it. It made me squirm slightly with social and cultural embarrassment but it was worth the discomfort.

I’ve written about Tom Cox before and about the way he funds his writing career. It is worth a look at Unbound if you are interested in books and writers. This was a magical read – with multiple narrators and a story stretching across centuries. Very moving and very funny – you can read the chapter which is the village e-noticeboard on his Substack and I’d highly recommend it as a taster.

Lovers of Cornwall, this is for you. A rich mix of walking, listening, geology, geography, the past and the future. A native of the far West, Hannigan walks from the border with Devon back to his home, and takes us through the particular history of this special place. He is clear-eyed about the bits that aren’t so magical. Very readable, packed with facts, figures, and fable.

Now this is really leaving it late, but I finally caught up with this absolute treat. Yes, it is a sobering example of women’s lives, and some of the religious bits are impenetrable (to me) but who wouldn’t love to look in on poor exhausted Mrs Quiverful and all her children? And let’s all avoid Dr Fillgrave. The authorial voice is someone you want to spend time with, and next time you visit a Bishop’s Garden or wander down a cold cloister you’ll be looking out for the characters.

I finished my summer reading as I started it, with a sweet treat, though this packs an emotional punch I wasn’t expecting. We open on a dislikable heroine who is already dead, and watch as she learns to love, forgive and move on. She doesn’t go where she’s expecting to end up, but sometimes heaven is just order restored.