Lit With Charles’ 5 Favourite Sun Soaked Reads To Escape Incoming Winter
By
3 weeks ago
Let these enchanting tomes to whisk you away from home
The sun may still be shining, but it’s setting earlier every evening and a biting chill has crept into the air. Winter is coming, as they say, and it’s time to plan your escapism. If a far-flung holiday isn’t on the cards this season, make like Charles Pignal (aka Lit with Charles) and build a sun soaked adventure into your reading instead.
A literary curator, podcaster and author of the Substack Lit with Charles, Pignal recently partnered with the opulent Rosewood London to bring a new library reflecting the character of Holborn to the hotel’s lobby, plus host a new literary salon series. Author Mornings sees Pignal joined by acclaimed authors for intimate conversations exploring their work and the themes behind it, recorded live for the Lit with Charles podcast. In the next instalment, on 21 October, Pignal will be joined in Scarfes Bar by Philippa Malicka for an intimate conversation exploring her gripping debut legal thriller, In Her Defense.
Until then, below, Pignal picks his favourite summery classics to give C&TH a much needed dose of escapism below.
The Magus by John Fowles (1965)
‘Set on a Greek island, this weird & wonderful novel follows a young English man playing a strange game orchestrated by a mysterious millionaire. Nothing is what it seems, or is it?’
Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan (1954)
‘A teenage girl’s idyllic summer on the French Riviera masks melancholy and manipulations in this hugely influential novel on French New Wave sensibilities.’
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (1985)
‘Two ageing Texas Rangers embark on an epic cattle drive to Montana in this classic Western; this deeply moving novel is the perfect summer read because its vast landscapes and addictive storytelling reward long, leisurely days of immersion.’
A Room With a View by EM Forster (1897)
‘A young Englishwoman’s transformative journey through sunlit Florence awakens her to love and freedom; witty, romantic, and one of literature’s most perfect celebrations of travel, youth, and summer possibility.’
The Odyssey by Homer (c.750 BC)
‘Odysseus’s long voyage home after Troy remains the original summer adventure story, filled with monsters and Mediterranean wanderlust that still inspire countless journeys and retellings today, including this summer’s blockbuster by Christopher Nolan.’
