The actress picks five favourites. A life-long gardener, her self-illustrated book “Drawn to the Garden” came out this year. She shares her love of horticulture at cqgardens.com and on Instagram @cqgardens.
Hangover Square
Patrick Hamilton, 1941
Playwright and novelist Hamilton tells the story of tragicomic anti-hero alcoholic George Bone, his obsession for the casually cruel, ambitious would-be actress Netta, and the various lost souls they drink with. In this interwar psychological thriller, the writing is as clear as gin and as sharp as lemon.
Forage
Liz Knight, 2021
A brilliant book for novice foragers, like me. Knight writes with passion, a light touch, huge knowledge and a sense of humour. There are great recipes, and lovely illustrations too, by Rachel Pedder-Smith.
Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont
Elizabeth Taylor, 1971
In this novel about old folk (people of my age) residing in a genteel hotel in west London – catered for but not yet cared for – Taylor reveals, with her trademark honesty, humour and kindness, what it is to grow old and to feel marginalised and lonely. It’s hopeful and full of a gritty joy.
Jane Bown: A Lifetime of Looking
Luke Dodd, 2015
A collection of 200 photographs by this remarkable photographer. Here are “ordinary” people (who Bown lets us know are not ordinary at all) alongside the famous – Margot Fonteyn, Sinéad O’Connor and others – who are photographed being “ordinary”.
The Go-Between
L.P. Hartley, 1953
I turned 16 in the famously hot summer of 1976, and this funny, tender coming-of-age story is set in a famously hot summer in the 1900s. Bullied at school, Leo is invited to stay with a friend at his family’s stately home. While there, he discovers love, sexuality, deception, bravery and, most painfully, his own snobbery and small-mindedness. I think it’s one of the greatest novels of all time. The British upper classes and a farmer’s bum laid bare, as the Norfolk countryside slowly desiccates.