Namita Gokhale

I read to share the world, to treasure words, to learn and intuit and recognise experiences to which I have no direct access. More

Tracy Chevalier

I read because I want to know what it’s like to look at the world through someone else’s eyes, and reading is a remarkably efficient and vigorous way of doing that. More

Room

Winner of the 2011 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize regional prize; made into a major motion picture. More

Anthony Doerr

We are all mapmakers: We embed our memories everywhere, inscribing a private and intensely complicated latticework across the landscape. More

The Thorn Birds

McCullough’s sweeping family saga of forbidden love in the Australian outback; became a bestselling phenomenon. More

Girl with a Pearl Earring

Multimillion-copy global bestseller that won critical acclaim for its beautifully wrought depiction of innocence corrupted. More

Wolf Hall

Winner of the 2009 Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. More

Jacqueline Winspear

I read because I love language, the way the joining of words and the rhythm of a story can make me laugh, cry, or take me out of my world or immerse me in the lives of others. More

Barometer Rising

The first novel by MacLennan, one of Canada’s most significant novelists of the mid-twentieth century. More

Hilary Mantel

I read out of hope and avid curiosity, and in an attempt to live in other times, and inhabit bodies that are not my own. More

A Soldier’s Tale

Enduring novel that has met with critical acclaim and been reprinted many times since its first release. More

Michael Chabon

The first writer that I really fell in love with was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in particular his Sherlock Holmes stories, and the first story that I ever wrote was a Sherlock Holmes story. More

Wild Swans

Popular bestseller that has sold more than 13 million copies. More