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Emerald Fennell is an actress, director and playwright whose screenplay for the thriller black comedy Promising young woman won an Oscar earlier this year. A musical based on her reimagining of Cinderella is currently playing in London.
Abandon the Ghost by Hilary Mantel (2003).
Hilary Mantel is one of those impossible and unique visionaries. She seems to descend from William Blake or a medieval ascetic. His horror writing is second to none, and there is nothing more visceral than his memoirs. Buy it here.
The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous by Jilly Cooper (1993).
Jilly Cooper’s bucolic world of quaint cottages, adorable dogs, and good hard knocks can’t be beat. Benevolent serial shagger Lysander Hawkley is one of the best in the gallery of irresistible thugs Cooper has created in his 10-book Chronicles of Rutshire series. Buy it here.
The Full Lyrics: 1978-2013 by Nick Cave (2013).
I write music, and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds is the band I listen to most often while I do it. Cave’s lyrics are as much a pleasure to read as they are to listen to. Gothic, violent and beautiful. Buy it here.
Nothing that falls under the eyes of Patricia Highsmith (2002).
Patricia Highsmith’s stories are just as monstrous as her novels, and this collection of unpublished tales, written between 1938 and 1982, is brimming with the exquisite and joyful sadism one would expect from the author of The talented Mr. Ripley. Buy it here.
The remains of the day by Kazuo Ishiguro (1989).
I love all of Ishiguro’s books, but this Booker Prize-winning novel, about an untold love between a butler and a housekeeper, is the one that most effectively tears your heart apart. A perfect tale of lost love and regret, it is masterful at showing the madness – and, often, cruelty – that is at the heart of British restraint. Buy it here.
Persuasion by Jane Austen (1817).
“You are piercing my soul. I’m half agony, half hope. Don’t tell me I’m too late.” There cannot be a single confession in all fiction more devastating than this. Austen single-handedly created the romantic comedy as we know it: even Tim and Dawn, everyone’s favorite couple in the UK version of Office, are the love children of Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth. ”Buy it here.
This article first appeared in the latest issue of The week magazine. If you want to read more, you can try six risk-free issues of the magazine. here.
