Are We Nearly There Yet? A Family’s 8000 Mile Car Journey Around Britain - Ben Hatch

Ben and Dinah dreamt of becoming hard-nosed journalists, blowing the lid off political wrong-doings and uncovering global scandals, but with both of them nearing 40 and clinging to the last of their professional dreams, they sign up for a laughably stressful freelance job writing a family guidebook that would see them and their two young children travelling around Britain for five months.

The four of them pack their lives into a Vauxhall Astra and pinball between blagged free hotels and what seems like every single last “attraction” the British Isles has to offer, from Shakespeare’s birth place to Northampton’s riveting shoe museum.

A touchingly written side-story about Ben’s sick dad provides some heart and the author doesn’t shy away from dealing with the real-life, day-to-day business when you’re faced with losing a parent. Hatch doesn’t side-step real life at all in fact, resisting the urge to create a bubble around the family’s unusual temporary existence living between their car, hotel rooms and twee attractions, allowing disappointments about Ben and Dinah’s careers and relationships to crop up often.

The book eventually reveals itself to be, not a mid-life crisis diary, but rather a later in life ‘finding yourself’ gap-year type adventure. The message is to appreciate where you are in life, what you’ve got and what you’ve achieved, rather than succumbing to ‘grass is greener’ syndrome or dwelling on past regrets.

An invaluable personal account for the author’s posterity but a little self-indulgent. The actual guidebook the trip spawned looks a lot more fun.

Girls in White Dresses - Jennifer Close

Isabelle, Mary and Lauren have been friends since college but have now reached the age where their peers go one way (marriage, mortgage, procreation) or the other (job-hopping, bed-hopping, bar-hopping). The loveably dysfunctional trio attend wedding after wedding while muddling through the unexpected turns their own lives take.

Each chapter focusses on a different character and delves into the nominated narrator’s own life, blinkering against the other girls’ issues and problems. This not only helps you connect with every single girl, but also helps you recognise how, despite having a close-knit support system, everyone suffers, tackles and conquers life’s challenges largely on their own, with inner-reserves of strength and humility. 

Girls in White Dresses is a real anthem for those who feel like everyone except them is where they should be in life, with a better job, relationship and lifestyle. The author doesn’t conform to the ‘life porn’ trap as with most chick-lit, her characters have pokey, affordable apartments and steady, dull jobs, there’s no chic city loft-living or inexhaustible income streams, you can actually relate to these women.

Again mirroring real life, you don’t notice the characters growing up and despite the pace settling in the last few chapters, at the last page it’s suddenly alarming how different they all are from the college girls we met at the beginning. 

This witty, heartfelt work of fiction resonates more than most autobiographies as well as being both clever and readable.

London The Autobiography - Jon. E. Lewis

Events of the past few weeks have cemented London’s reputation as one of the greatest cities on earth but our first-class hospitality, multi-million pound fireworks and Olympic medal collection shouldn’t overshadow the many hundreds of years of history and people that has seen our capital city reign supreme among its global counterparts since Boudicca sacked it in AD 60.

This isn’t the author’s dissertation-length creation, but a collection of completely original texts, including letters, diary entries and poems, written by real people who lived through these historical events. For this reason the language is, understandably, archaic and makes for a laborious read in places.

The entire first half of the book, from Boudicca up to the 1800’s feels particularly slow given the fashion for comprehensive record-keeping (there’s more than one painfully comprehensive list of household items) and the fact that Roman, Tudor and Shakespearean London are well-visited periods in history and while these original texts offer a more personal angle to events, they reveal nothing new that wouldn’t have been covered in history class.

Our more recent history is brought alive however with expertly selected entries from infamous historical figures documenting life-altering events. A 19 year old Queen Victoria walks us through her own coronation, The Sex Pistols tell of their first ever gig in 1975 and eye-witness accounts of Princess Diana’s funeral procession and the 7/7 bombings remind us of the darker side of London’s history. 

More of a research text, masquerading as a novel, that should be dipped into at whatever historical period takes your fancy.

Twenty Tiny Tales - Willie Wit

Clinging on to the Olympic theme by the skin of my teeth, I present Twenty Tiny Tales-a unique booked featuring perfect bite-sized literary chunks to dip in and out of while you attempt to get your life back on track following two and half weeks of professional and personal neglect due to the relentless televised patriotic athleticism. 

Don’t be put off by the first ‘tale’, it’s by far the least gripping and once you get past that four page hurdle, each subsequent story is more surprising and revelatory than the last.

There is a recurring theme of last-minute twists at the end of each (very) short story and once you get into the pattern, you’ll find yourself looking for clues from the very first page as to who or what the ambiguously enigmatic narrator of each tale really is. 

Each story flips between devilishly dark, unaffectedly poignant and charmingly romantic-a particular highlight being, The Wedding, which is a mini Tarantino script in five pages. 

This frivolous collection of fables offers an insight into the author’s obscure train of thought, as you get the feeling each tale was borne out of the same kind of ridiculous fleeting ‘what if’ mind-tracks we all get throughout the day, Willie Wit just took them one step further and had the creativity to devise the right format to record and share them. 

An original creation and refreshing reading experience.

Big Day Out - Jacqueline Wilson

It's advisable that primary school aged children keep up with their reading over (what seems to them) an endless summer break, but try telling an eight-year-old that.

Jacqueline Wilson, our most beloved (living) children’s writer, has put together four short stories to help ease reluctant young readers into the hobby while they’re off school and stuck inside due to them being off school in England, where we don’t get a summer. 

All four stories encourage affordable, outdoor activities while subtly promoting the fringe benefits of none-nuclear families, equality and acceptance.

First up we have Our Free Day Out, in which Lily, is despairing at the thought of six weeks trapped in a tiny flat with them all.

Relief comes in the form of an accommodating Over 60’s group, who invite the struggling family along on their seaside trip.

The second story, Day Out in the Country, sees Hayley forced to socialise with her mum’s new boyfriend, whose idea of a fun day out is hiking up a big hill. 

The heroine of Odd One Out, Laura, prefers ‘innings’ to outings and would rather be writing stories than consorting with her gaggle of half and step siblings.

And finally, we have Marty, whose animal obsession is rewarded with a very special summer holiday trip.

All four heroines are also avid readers and writers themselves, which should hopefully inspire Wilson’s target demographic, which I’d put in the female, aged 5-10 bracket in this case.