Clare Stirzaker recommends

Having read “Where the Crawdads Sing” and really enjoyed it, I looked into other books that Delia Owens had written, and discovered this book that was written back in the 1970s with her husband. It is a brilliant factual account of their time in one of the remotest parts of Botswana researching brown hyenas. It grabbed me initially as I have been to East and South Africa many times and love the experience of seeing animals in the wild, such as hyenas, and so enjoyed learning more about them. However, what I really loved about the account was just the sheer madness of these two very poor zoologist students, travelling in a ramshackle land rover with next to no money and little provisions and heading to one of the wildest and remotest parts of Africa, in the hope that their research would eventually obtain funding. You feel as though you are on the journey with them, sharing the frustrations, heartbreak and joy of undertaking such important work. And their accounts of their encounters with lions and hyenas, whilst in their tents at night, send shivers through the spines at times, but also shows that with the right level of understanding and respect for these animals it is possible to live harmoniously with them. It has definitely inspired me to try and start booking my next trip to Africa and hopefully make it to Botswana (but on a less basic budget and with a bit more distance between me and lions).

I love crime fiction but when I’m a bit worn out by brutal Scandi-noir, I find myself reaching out for another Agatha Christie to restore my faith in the genre of crime writing. I haven’t yet (shamefully) read all 66 crime books, as I have an obsession about only buying the Pan editions published in either the 1960s or 1970s. That aside, if I had to pick one, it would probably be Death on the Nile. I’m more a fan of Hercule Poirot, rather than Miss Marple, and love that this story is set on a cruise on the Nile, having visited Egypt and the Nile countless times. I have also watched the 1978 film starring Peter Ustinov far too many times on a Sunday afternoon, which definitely contributes towards this being one of my favourite Christie stories.

Whilst perusing the shelves of my lovely second-hand bookshop in Blackheath, I came across some early editions of the Paddington books and found that I couldn’t resist the urge to buy them. Later sat in the garden, on a deck chair (sadly without a marmalade sandwich), I found myself laughing out loud at Paddington’s various calamities as he tries to take a driving test, padlocks his neighbour, Mr Curry, into Mr Brown’s new steaming hot sauna bath, and tries to earn money posing as a model in life-class. Beautifully illustrated by Peggy Fortnum and packed full of hilarious mishaps, it provides a lovely form of escapism and is incredibly comforting. Just the tonic during these recent difficult times!

I stumbled across this book at a work book sale and whilst I had heard of John Irving, I had never read any of his books. With a picture of an armadillo on the front cover, it called out to me, and I found myself devouring it over my morning commute for the next couple of weeks and laughing out loud on the train and also crying at points. Its set in the summer of 1953 in New Hampshire in America. Two eleven year old boys who are best friends are playing in a baseball game; one of the boys hits a foul ball that kills his best friend’s mother. The boy who hits the ball doesn’t believe in accidents though; Owen Meany believes he is God’s instrument. The book follows Owen Meany’s extraordinary life from 1953 onwards after the fateful baseball incident and I just couldn’t put it down. I fell in love with the character of Owen – a very small boy with an awful voice (with capitals deployed throughout to emphasise that Owen speaks differently to others) and I fell in love with John Irving. A book I would read countless times and always enjoy.

I was introduced to this book by my husband when we first started going out, who basically said that if I didn’t like the book, it would cause him to question the long-term future of our relationship. I felt minded not to like it to see if that was a true challenge, but annoyingly I loved it! It was a book written in the early sixties and the author sadly committed suicide before it was eventually published, but his mother persevered and ensured it was published and it won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1981.

The hero of the novel is Ignatius Reilly – slob extraordinaire, who is in violent revolt against the entire modern age, Set in New Orleans, Ignatius tries to find work under pressure from his mother but jumps from one disastrous experience to the next. There is also the story of his relationship with his girlfriend, which is hilarious, but it’s his rants on life and his observations on life in New Orleans, which I remember the most. It can be hard to read at time, given Ignatius’ slobbish ways, but I found myself becoming very fond of him by the end. It’s not a book for everyone, but when you find someone else who likes it, you will invariably like them too.

I’ve read lots of brilliant nature fiction recently and was torn between this and James Rebanks, The Shepherds Life (which I recommended to Rupert Ticehurst previously) but this one has just stuck with me more. Helen Macdonald gives a brilliant account of dealing with grief after the death of her father, and her subsequent obsession in trying to train her own goshawk, Mabel. It’s quite a brutal exploration of both grief and the natural world at times, but totally fascinating and absorbing as you slowly read of the relationship that forms between her and Mabel. I also particularly loved learning more about the wold of falconry and goshawks. I am a bit of a twitcher, and like Helen, would often read old books about birds when I was growing up, so I loved that her fascination with falconry started at a young age and that her determination and reaction to her grief, enabled her to take on one of the toughest falconry challenges. A unique book that I think even a hardened city dweller would enjoy.