Sunday Shelfie with Andrew Hunter Murray

It’s not often enough that we get male authors on Sunday Shelfie, so I’m delighted to be able to include one today. I should add that this is not for want of trying, I do ask blokes on, I just find that more often it’s the women writers who say yes. The same goes for my Twelve Days of Christmas Writing Advice.

Anyway, by way of reintroduction, if you are new to Sunday Shelfie it is a chance to browse the bookshelves of authors and find out what goodies they’ve got there. And if you would like to catch up with the entire archive of Sunday Shelfie authors you can do so here.

Make sure you’re subscribed to White Ink to receive Sunday Shelfie in your inboxes, as well as all my other posts. And don’t forget, upgrading to paid means you get to join my monthly creative writing group plus read my entire archive which include dozens of essays by bestselling guest authors.

So with all that out the way, let’s get on with the task in hand. This week it is writer, podcaster and comedian Andrew Hunter Murray who is opening up his bookshelves to us.

Andrew is a writer for Private Eye, and presents BBC Radio Four’s The Naked Week, he is also a Sunday Times bestselling novelist and has written three novels, The Last Day, The Sanctuary (a Waterstones Thriller of the Week) and A Beginner’s Guide to Breaking and Entering which is published in paperback this week.

But what we’d really like is a look at his bookshelves, right? And here they are, or at least a section of them which he will explain below:

Just a selection of the 800-1000 books Andrew has…

How would you describe your collection of books? Any favourite genres?

I’m pretty catholic in my tastes – I try to have at least one fiction and one non-fiction on the go – and I don’t really have any favourite genres. What we are looking at in this above photograph is the ‘fiction mothership’. Up top we have the Persephone Zone, devoted to the books printed by Persephone Books (mid-century women authors); then there is a stripe of Sci-Fi and Fantasy; then a little General Fiction; and the bottom is the TBR shelf, plus a few I’m meaning to re-read. But not pictured here are Outsize Fiction, All Non-Fiction, Comedy General; Books I Have Been Given And Can’t Get Rid Of Yet For Fear Of Causing Offence… it’s chaos. I need a larger wall and a year off.

How many books do you estimate you have and how are they organised, if at all?

In my home, probably 800-1000? I do thin quite often, because there are plenty of books I finish then know I won’t read again, and I also lean on my local library quite a lot, so there’s constant inflow and outflow. But even looking at this picture I can spot a few which will be making their way to the Great Train Station Bookshelf In The Sky tomorrow.

In percentage terms, how many of the total books on your shelves have you read?

Maybe…80%? But I cull quite rapidly if I’m not enjoying a book because honestly who has the time? So if I’m not in after 30 pages, I tend to pull the emergency cord and remove the offender.

Which three books are top of your TBR (To Be Read) pile at the moment?

Sleeper Beach, a new sci-fi-noir by Nick Harkaway. It’s set in a world of ‘Titans’, people who are enormously wealthy and practically immortal due to a new drug called T7. They also grow much too big. Appropriately, the copy I have is hardback and therefore too big to be pictured here.

Four Films, by Richard Ayoade. Ayoade’s books might be the funniest I’ve ever read. His new project is a collection of four screenplays by a made-up director who happens to look just like Richard Ayoade, and accompanying biography. It’s going to be ridiculous.

Any Human Heart, by William Boyd. I’ve read and loved a few of Boyd’s books and people assure me this one is right up there with his best, so that’ll be a treat.

Which book on your bookshelf is the most well-thumbed/do you return to the most, and why?

There are a few long-suffering spines here. Biggest hits are probably the Evelyn Waugh – I have gone back to his early (funny) books many times over the years – and the Jane Austens, which are scattered around my home in a complete mess of formats.

Which book on your bookshelf do you most often buy as a gift for others, and why?

I have got Persephone books for lots of friends over the years – probably RC Sherriff’s The Fortnight In September, which is a hypnotically brilliant book about a family going from Clapham to Bognor for a fortnight’s holiday. It takes them 80 pages to travel the two-hour journey from one place to the other and yet you’re gripped throughout. No idea how.

If you have a collection of writing craft books, which is your favourite and why?

Hattie Crisell

does a podcast called In Writing and she wrote a book, In Writing, of the best tips from the best guests. That one is great, partly because it shows how many different ways there are to skin a cat, make an omelette, or mix a metaphor.

If you write within a particular genre, can you tell us your three favourite books within that genre (classic or contemporary) and why?

Slow Horses. The genre, incidentally, is ‘crime/thriller but funny’ and Mick Herron just nails it, time after time with his array of deeply offensive but somehow lovable losers and screw-ups. I have read all the Slow Horses books in the last six months bar one, which I’m saving for an emergency, and once I’ve finished I will have to complete all the B-sides and rarities.

Psmith, Journalist. PG Wodehouse has a minor hero called Psmith who gets three books to himself and in this one Psmith (classic English toff but a bit eccentric and communist) goes to New York and starts exerting himself on behalf of the poor by taking over a magazine called Cosy Moments and turning it into a crusading paper

Murder Must Advertise. This is by Dorothy L Sayers and it’s about Lord Peter Wimsey, her eccentric English toff detective (hang on, there’s a theme emerging here…) This is set at an advertising agency in the 1930s. It’s one of the very few crime novels to feature a cricket match as its climactic scene, and the only one where a character is unmasked because he has a particularly distinctive driving shot.

Which book on your bookshelf is your guilty pleasure?

I don’t mind a ‘cosy catastrophe’, so I’ll say The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham. But he’s so good it’s hard to feel guilty.

Which book on your bookshelf do you feel most guilty for not having read yet, and why?

I only feel guilty when I’ve been given a book by a friend who’s told me how fantastic it is, and then it sits there for a year with me looking shiftily at it. Then I read it and it’s terrific, but it’s too late by then of course, so I have to simply put it in the train station and never speak of the matter again.

Which book would we be most surprised to find on your bookshelf?

I have no idea if it’s surprising but I have a great weakness for ghost stories and recently read the brilliant Dark Matter by Michelle Paver. Arctic wilderness and things get seriously spooky. I had to read it during daylight hours by the end.

Which book on your shelf would you take to a desert island, and why?

Robinson Crusoe. It’d be nice to know someone else had been and made such a success of things.

Which book is on your wishlist currently to join all the others on your bookshelf?

I have a Reading Wish List and try to get through a couple of stone-cold classics a year, so I’ll say The Mill On The Floss. Will I get to it? Hope springs eternal…

Thank you so much to Andrew for taking part. Don’t forget if you would like to bother your favourite author on Substack to take part in Sunday Shelfie, just share this post and tag them and then I’ll hunt them down – they won’t mind, no pressure!