Publishing may be in flux thanks to the closure of book shops, but we have faith that it’s one of the industries that will get back on its feet fast. After all, we’re reading more than ever in lockdown, partly for the escapism, partly because we – like everyone else – have never spent more time at home. Here are the volumes – improving and otherwise – getting us through

Becky Ladenburg, Features Editor

The Most Fun We Ever Had

Rather late to the party, I am reading The Most Fun We Ever Had by debut US novelist Claire Lombardo. This addictive saga follows, across decades and generations, the roller coaster lives of a couple and their four grown-up daughters. Family life isn’t perfect, significant secrets emerge, but the ties that bind are strong. I am enjoying it so much that my children’s homeschooling is in grave peril.

Lucy Abletshauser, Shopping Editor

Mudlarking

My secret pleasure is mudlarking. I follow loads of mudlarking accounts and once I’m on their Instagram pages, I spend far too long poring over their magical finds. I follow @Jasonmudlark as his finds are particularly enthralling (think intact cobalt blue, 19th-century poison bottles and intricate Roman hair pins). He photographs his treasures as he finds them, so it feels as though we, the viewers, are finding them too. Anyway, I have even looked into getting a mudlarking licence (!) and am contemplating doing it with my eldest son. I just need to find out which part of the Thames is easily accessible as I have fears of being stranded in filthy, eel-infested, London water. Anyway, my point is that I am currently reading ‘Mudlarking’ by Lara Maiklem (I obviously follow her on Insta too). I am only a few chapters in and already loving it. I am considering it my guide to becoming a professional mudlarker.

Arabella Dymoke, Managing Director

The Mountbattens

I’m reading The Mountbattens: Their Lives and Loves by Andrew Lownie. It’s a brisk read through the lives of this famous couple, charting both their careers and love lives. It's fascinating that Edwina could behave so publicly with her lovers but times were different then and turning a blind eye meant exactly that. She appeared to be a terrible mother when her daughters were small, spending huge amounts of time away from home, but they all seemed to get on when older. Edwina was, however, a great organiser and did fantastic aid work, where she took great risks to her safety, to help the plight of refugees.

Lydia Mansi, Lifestyle Editor

Lift As You Climb

I’ve just started Lift As You Climb, by Viv Groskop. I’m a huge fan of her podcast, ‘How to Own A Room’, and her latest book looks in-depth at how we can be ambitious as women but in a compassionate and collaborative way that really resonates with how I want my own business to succeed.

Nancy Alsop, Editor

Half Of The Human Race

One of my favourite literary discoveries in recent times has been the brilliant novels of Anthony Quinn. Curtain Call reeled me in – I’m a sucker for a murder mystery set in the 1930s, but I soon realised that it was so much more than that. His special skill is in convincingly capturing the spirit of a time, whether it is that period of unimaginable change between VE Day and the 1960s, as he pulls off with Freya and Eureka, which are both brilliant and form a loose trilogy with Curtain Call, or post coronation London as a suffragette in Half of the Human Race, which I’ve just started. So far, so typically brilliant.

May 2020
By Team GWG

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