| Our Favourite Cosy Reads |  | "Storms upon storms in quick succession crowd,
And o'er the sameness of the purple sky
Heaven paints, with hurried hand, wild hues of every dye"
John Clare had the measure of November — the dampest and most dismal month. We hate it — literary editors are not a hardy breed. As icy November blasts assail our offices and a general election looms, we're gathering up our favourite cardigans and retreating into the books cupboard to cuddle up with each other like bespectacled penguins... and search for something comforting to read.
Here's what we found. Cosy tales and our favourite books to re-read: in short, literary comfort food.
Pigs Have Wings by PG Wodehouse
Wodehouse's Blandings novels are surely his cosiest. Will Lord Emsworth's famous pig triumph at the local show… or will devious Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe put a spanner in the works?
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
There's nothing cosier than a good murder. And curling up with Christie's classic tale of slaughter on a snowed-in train will make you glad you don't have to deal with solving a murder as well as buying new knitwear.
Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm
A glorious, effervescent champagne glass of a novel. Bubbles of wit and silliness burst through this tale of a very beautiful girl's catastrophic impact on the students of Oxford University.
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
A winter classic. Our cartoonist Peter Brookes re-reads it every Christmas. Get yourself in the yuletide mood with Dickens's tale of redemption and a fat goose.
The Harry Potter novels by JK Rowling
The ultimate comfort food for anyone under 30. Hibernate for the winter with this classic tale of life at a rather special boarding school.
The Neapolitan Quartet by Elena Ferrante
The great immersive experience of contemporary fiction. Ditch the dreary reality of life in suburban Milton Keynes (or wherever you live) and head to sunkissed, gangster-infested Naples.
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
The perfect Austen for winter months. A satirical jeu d'esprit that pokes fun at gothic novels, which can be read in a single Sunday evening curled up by the fire.
Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett
The great TP could bear 1,000 re-readings. Head off the beaten track with his beautifully imagined satire on the politics of ancient China (trust us, it's hilarious). |
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