Have Book, Will Travel
When I was in South Africa recently, I read Allison Pearson’s forthcoming novel, How Hard Can It Be? (more on that nearer its publication date in September). I read it in my room at a wonderful hotel called 54 on Bath in Johannesburg.
The room had a little balcony, a superking-sized bed, a smart black and white patterned carpet, and a view of the hotel’s garden and outdoor lap pool (in which I determinedly swam, and nearly froze all my internal organs!) I lay on the bed, surrounded by torn-off luggage labels and the contents of my suitcase, and read Allison’s book on my iPhone. Then I got hungry, so I went down to the restaurant in search of lunch. I sat at a table in the garden, next to a plant, in the sun, and read more of Allison’s book. I finished it later that evening, back in my room, after a hot shower to try to cancel out the effects of the cold pool, and…
Why am I telling you this? Because I’ve just realised that from now on, whenever I think of How Hard Can It Be?, I will think about Hotel 54 on Bath in Johannesburg. People say perfumes are evocative, and they’re right – I’ll always associate Mystere de Rochas, for example, with a seedy top-floor flat in Levenshulme, which I’m sure is not quite what the Rochas noses intended when they created the fragrance – but the books we read and love on holiday are equally redolent of a past time and place.
What’s also weird, though, is that there are lots and lots of books I’ve read in interesting places that I don’t remember – so I’m not quite sure why I remember the ones I do! Here they are, anyway – all the ones I can remember:
Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner
I couldn’t have chosen a less appropriate setting to read this novel! I read it on a rural Welsh holiday, in a converted barn called Blaen Cerniog in Trefeglwys, surrounded by sheep, with not another person or building in sight. I felt as if I should have been in an elegant Belle Epoque European hotel instead, like the heroine of the novel. It’s a brilliantly evocative and beautifully written book that perfectly captures a certain kind of pessimism and sadness. If you want to read about the stoical acceptance of injustice and dashed hopes, this novel is for you!
The Trespasser by Tana French
I read this in Grasse, France, lying next to the swimming pool of a beautiful villa called La Rivolte. It’s an unputdownable police procedural set in Dublin, with a muscular and suspenseful central mystery. French’s police protagonists are so much more vivid and sympathetic than most.
The Nice and the Good by Iris Murdoch
I read this on the beach in Gibraltar. I’m a huge Iris Murdoch fan and this is one of her best. There’s a scene in it where some of the characters swim into a cave under a rock in the sea. I decided to do the same, and swam into a rocky cave that was sort of directly under the hotel I was staying in. It was exciting and felt a bit risky. My husband told me off later, because apparently the tide could have come in and trapped him and I could have drowned. It’s probably the stupidest risk I’ve ever taken; I blame Iris Murdoch.
The Memory Game by Nicci French
I read this is Fort Lauderdale in 2000 (I think?) and it saved my holiday. Most of it had been spent reading a very dull and stodgy Booker-prize-winning novel that had been recommended to me as brilliant. I didn’t enjoy it, so it took me nearly the whole holiday to read. I read The Memory Game next and knew instantly that it would be one of my favourite books always and forever – which sort of made up for having wasted so long on a boring book beforehand.
The Hollow by Agatha Christie
I read this recently in Dubai, by the swimming pool at the Sofitel Jumeirah Beach hotel. It features Hercule Poirot and is (currently) my top favourite Agatha Christie novel. The plot and characters are perfectly balanced and fascinating, and the solution to the mystery is ingenious.
Innocent Blood by P D James
I read this one at the Villa Vita Parc Hotel in Portugal. There’s a twist in it that’s so astonishingly good and unforseeable that when I got to it, I jumped up off my poolside sun lounger and ran round the pool telling strangers that they HAD to read this book.
Sacrifice by S J Bolton
I read and finished this gripping thriller on a long-haul flight and was so riveted, I forgot I was in the air!
Before I go to Sleep by S J Watson
Another total engaging thriller that I read and finished on a long haul flight. The hours flew by.
Have Book, Will Travel
When I was in South Africa recently, I read Allison Pearson’s forthcoming novel, How Hard Can It Be? (more on that nearer its publication date in September). I read it in my room at a wonderful hotel called 54 on Bath in Johannesburg.
The room had a little balcony, a superking-sized bed, a smart black and white patterned carpet, and a view of the hotel’s garden and outdoor lap pool (in which I determinedly swam, and nearly froze all my internal organs!) I lay on the bed, surrounded by torn-off luggage labels and the contents of my suitcase, and read Allison’s book on my iPhone. Then I got hungry, so I went down to the restaurant in search of lunch. I sat at a table in the garden, next to a plant, in the sun, and read more of Allison’s book. I finished it later that evening, back in my room, after a hot shower to try to cancel out the effects of the cold pool, and…
Why am I telling you this? Because I’ve just realised that from now on, whenever I think of How Hard Can It Be?, I will think about Hotel 54 on Bath in Johannesburg. People say perfumes are evocative, and they’re right – I’ll always associate Mystere de Rochas, for example, with a seedy top-floor flat in Levenshulme, which I’m sure is not quite what the Rochas noses intended when they created the fragrance – but the books we read and love on holiday are equally redolent of a past time and place.
What’s also weird, though, is that there are lots and lots of books I’ve read in interesting places that I don’t remember – so I’m not quite sure why I remember the ones I do! Here they are, anyway – all the ones I can remember:
Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner
I couldn’t have chosen a less appropriate setting to read this novel! I read it on a rural Welsh holiday, in a converted barn called Blaen Cerniog in Trefeglwys, surrounded by sheep, with not another person or building in sight. I felt as if I should have been in an elegant Belle Epoque European hotel instead, like the heroine of the novel. It’s a brilliantly evocative and beautifully written book that perfectly captures a certain kind of pessimism and sadness. If you want to read about the stoical acceptance of injustice and dashed hopes, this novel is for you!
The Trespasser by Tana French
I read this in Grasse, France, lying next to the swimming pool of a beautiful villa called La Rivolte. It’s an unputdownable police procedural set in Dublin, with a muscular and suspenseful central mystery. French’s police protagonists are so much more vivid and sympathetic than most.
The Nice and the Good by Iris Murdoch
I read this on the beach in Gibraltar. I’m a huge Iris Murdoch fan and this is one of her best. There’s a scene in it where some of the characters swim into a cave under a rock in the sea. I decided to do the same, and swam into a rocky cave that was sort of directly under the hotel I was staying in. It was exciting and felt a bit risky. My husband told me off later, because apparently the tide could have come in and trapped him and I could have drowned. It’s probably the stupidest risk I’ve ever taken; I blame Iris Murdoch.
The Memory Game by Nicci French
I read this is Fort Lauderdale in 2000 (I think?) and it saved my holiday. Most of it had been spent reading a very dull and stodgy Booker-prize-winning novel that had been recommended to me as brilliant. I didn’t enjoy it, so it took me nearly the whole holiday to read. I read The Memory Game next and knew instantly that it would be one of my favourite books always and forever – which sort of made up for having wasted so long on a boring book beforehand.
The Hollow by Agatha Christie
I read this recently in Dubai, by the swimming pool at the Sofitel Jumeirah Beach hotel. It features Hercule Poirot and is (currently) my top favourite Agatha Christie novel. The plot and characters are perfectly balanced and fascinating, and the solution to the mystery is ingenious.
Innocent Blood by P D James
I read this one at the Villa Vita Parc Hotel in Portugal. There’s a twist in it that’s so astonishingly good and unforseeable that when I got to it, I jumped up off my poolside sun lounger and ran round the pool telling strangers that they HAD to read this book.
Sacrifice by S J Bolton
I read and finished this gripping thriller on a long-haul flight and was so riveted, I forgot I was in the air!
Before I go to Sleep by S J Watson
Another total engaging thriller that I read and finished on a long haul flight. The hours flew by.