Life & Style
The Collagerie Book Club
What’s the first thing you do when you’re craving a really good book recommendation? You ask a friend, of course. And since we’re endlessly in seeking unputdownable tomes, we’ve invited a clutch of our literary loving friends which reads they always return to.
Katy Hessell, art historian, writer and broadcaster
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
From the Gothic halls of Manderley and the rocky shores of Cornwall – du Maurier’s Rebecca transports me to other worlds. I don’t think there’s another book that always has me so gripped. Full of secrets, with mysterious characters who slowly reveal themselves in the most haunting and exciting of ways, Rebecca is a tale of love, violence, power and silences.
Val Garland, makeup artist
Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain
I’ve carried this book with me since first reading it in the mid-Eighties. At its core, it’s about mindset: that what you think and what you believe shape your experience. The meditations and mantras have stayed with me and remain part of my daily life. It’s a book about tuning in – about listening to your gut and trusting those quiet instincts – and it’s never far away. In fact, it lives in my bedside drawer.
Tamar Adler, cookery writer
A Cordiall Water by MFK Fisher
MFK Fisher called A Cordiall Water her favorite of her own books. I wonder, reading that, whether the finished text read to her as much like a mystery as it does to me. Underneath all its anecdotes and old wives’ tales always seems to lurk another story – some unarticulated lesson about life and its length, or about humanity or poetry. I can’t quite explain how I can return as often as I have to a book that is ostensibly about ancient cures for various ailments. But I know that each time I do, I seem to scrape away a layer and get nearer to the mystery’s core.
Sam McKnight, hair stylist
Three Sisters by Heather Morris
The true story of three teenage sisters from the same village as The Tattooist of Auschwitz (whose story Heather Morris told in an earlier book) all of whom survived Auschwitz and live to old age. This is their tale as told to the author by the sisters – it’s about the worst of humanity, but also about survival. The back story, about how the book came to be, is quite moving. Beautifully written and very inspiring, it’s a tale for our times which should never be forgotten and one which everyone should read.
Alice Casely-Hayford, FASHION WRITER AND PODCASTER
Black Gold Of The Sun by Ekow Eshun
This is the poignant memoir of a man “looking for an antidote to London” as he travels through Ghana searching for his roots. It is a book that I first read as a teenager and one that guided me in my late adolescence and early adulthood – alongside White Teeth by Zadie Smith and The Black Album by Hanif Kureishi – as I explored my sense of self, identity and the idea of home. The question, “Where are you from originally?” persists in all three books, and all three – written at the bridge of a new millennium – are modern masterpieces that capture the complexities and pertinent issues of multicultural London life. As a proud Londoner and a Black British woman, these books were vital in helping me, and I’m sure countless others, discover my identity and feel less othered. As a writer, they made me fall deeply in love with literature and the power of the word.
Charles Pignal, literary podcaster
The Magus by John Fowles
This novel is a great example of postmodern literature: it’s the story of a young Englishman who takes a job on a Greek island at a school. On this island, there is a mysterious millionaire who he eventually meets and who puts him through all sorts of weird situations where reality gets blurry… The whole novel is layered with clever references to Greek myths, Shakespeare and Sade. A great holiday read!
Anya Hindmarch, accessories designer
A Dictionary of Colour Combinations by Sanzo Wada
Japanese artist and kimono designer Sanzo Wada produced this creative reference book in the Thirties. It features some amazing colour combinations – like aubergine and teal with bright yellow – and it is a source of continual joy and inspiration to me.
Nicky Haslam, interior designer, writer and style commentator
A Legacy by Sybille Bedford
A book I could never be without is Sybille Bedford’s semi-autobiographical novel, A Legacy. The first in a trio of books based upon her own life and that of a languid, sophisticated “imaginary” family, it describes their somewhat unconventional social situation and lifestyle in militarily-obsessed Berlin during the early years of the 20th century. Their carefree yet inbred, hidebound attitude leads to a violent tragedy that shatters their world. In all her books, Bedford writes with spare, crystalline prose, threaded with rare historical knowledge and sidelong humour. While A Legacy is undoubtedly my favourite, a close runner-up is A Visit to Don Ottavio, her journey to Mexico immediately after the Second World War. I urge everyone to read her.
