Sunday Shelfie with Sophie Hannah

This week’s Sunday Shelfie is courtesy of an old friend of White Ink, such an old friend in fact that this Substack was not even called White Ink in those days, in fact, I don’t think it had a name back then.

Before we move onto this week’s Sunday Shelfie, a quick recap of our last one, also from an old friend of White Ink, David Whitehouse. You can catch up with that Sunday Shelfie here:

And in fact, you can browse the entire series here. And don’t forget to subscribe to receive these posts straight in your inbox:

But which author is sharing her bookshelves with us this week? It’s Sophie Hannah.

Sophie first appeared in my Twelve Days of Christmas Writing Advice series back in 2022. You can find that excellent essay here, where Sophie is reminding you that to achieve your writing ambitions you first need to become your own ‘First Passionate Believer’:

Sophie is the author of more than 35 books, including, the new Hercule Poirot mysteries written with the blessing of the Agatha Christie estate. Her twisty new thriller, No One Would Do What The Lamberts Have Done, is out now, published by Bedford Square Publishers.

But what we really want to have a look at are her bookshelves right? And here they are:

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

Mystery-driven fiction is my top favourite genre, and always has been - ever since I discovered Enid Blyton’s Secret Seven and Five Find-outer mysteries. Usually, this means I read crime/detective novels/psychological thrillers - though I also love a good supernatural mystery.

My next favourite genre is fiction that’s as compelling as mystery fiction for some other reason, often because it contains a brilliant and gripping high concept: eg The Husbands by Holly Gramazio or Impossible by Sarah Lotz. And another genre I love an read regularly is self help. I can’t believe people sneer at this genre - I love it so much, I even buy and read self-help books about problems I don’t have!

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

I reckon I probably own about 300 books. Anything I read that I’m not planning to read again and that doesn’t have any particular sentimental value, I give away to friends, charity shops or the church book sale. The books I keep are, sadly, not at all organised. I can’t imagine there ever coming a day when I’ll have time to organise them, either. This means I can sometimes spend hours searching for a particular book.

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

Ninety per cent. The rest are ones I’m about to read, like my current ‘holiday reading’ pile.

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

1. House of Glass by Sarah Pekkanen - a new-ish thriller that looks very gripping and right up my street!

2. Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann - I read this decades ago and am eager to reread as part of my research for a project that’s currently a secret!

3. Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett. It’s a play, obviously, but I own it in book form. I was inspired to read it by various reactions to my new novel, No One Would Do What The Lamberts Have Done. When people tell me how unusual and challenging a novel Lamberts is, as if perhaps I ought to have made it easier for them, I often find myself thinking ‘I wonder if they’d say that to Samuel Beckett.’ I read two of his novels as a student and literally didn’t have a clue what he was on about!! I’m keen to read Godot now as it’s his most famous work and I wonder if I’ll be as clueless now as I was as an 18-year-old English Lit student!

4. Insiders by Olivia Goldsmith. Goldsmith wrote the best novel I’ve ever read about writing, publishing and the book world: Bestseller. It’s high time I read another of her novels.

5. Witch Trial by Harriet Tyce - her forthcoming novel and, I’m sure, her best so far. I started reading it on my Kindle and absolutely loved the sinister and compelling beginning. Then I got sick of reading on a Kindle (I started to feel as if it was spoiling my experience in various ways!) so I’m now eagerly awaiting a bound proof!

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

The Black Prince by Iris Murdoch, which I believe is the best novel ever written. I read it once every few years. I almost feel this book has magic powers. It’s tragic, comic, mysterious, thought-provoking and so much more than the sum of its parts. It manages to be both a great detective story and a great love story at the same time. It’s the only book I’ve ever read that feels as if it encapsulates all of life and the human experience.

The Penguin Vintage Classics edition of The Black Prince, for which Sophie wrote an introduction

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

Coming From Behind by Howard Jacobson - hands down the laugh-out-loud-funniest, sharpest, most savagely witty novel I’ve ever read. Also a brilliant memoir, House Rules by Rachel Sontag - about the author’s psychologically abusive and, frankly, insane childhood in a home that looked perfect to external observers.

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

Weirdly, I never read these! I remember reading a brilliant one in the early 1990s, by Orson Scott Card — but I haven’t read one since! My way of improving my craft is by constantly attempting more and more ambitious writing projects, getting them wrong at first, and then trying to get them right!

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

Well, I write crime/mystery and self help, and poetry, and musicals, so…

Crime

1. The Hollow by Agatha Christie

2. A Dark-Adapted Eye by Barbara Vine

3. Before I Go To Sleep by S J Watson

4. Nightwatching by Tracy Sierra

5. Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister

Self-Help

1. The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

2. Self-Coaching 101 by Brooke Castillo

3. Loving What Is by Byron Katie

Poetry

1. Collected Sonnets - Edna St Vincent Millay

2. Collected Poems - C H Sisson

3. Things My Children Think I’m Wrong About - Nic Aubury

Which book on your bookshelf is your guilty pleasure?

I don’t believe anything I enjoy reading is wrong or unworthy, so I don’t feel guilty, ever, about pleasurable reading! I feel a little guilty for having recently slogged my way through two desperately boring, plotless books that were endlessly recommended by Friends With Taste. I should have given up both as soon as I found myself wondering if anything was ever going to happen.

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

My daughter bought me, as a present, a memoir by a surviving child of Fred and Rosemary West. I really want to read it because she bought it for me, but I just…don’t want to spend any time at all thinking about Fred or Rosemary West, and I’m guessing this particular book might make that rather difficult.

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

So many. Anything at all hobbit-y or fantasy-ish. Sci Fi. Westerns. Spy novels, which I never understand at all. It’s a genre that always confuses me within a paragraph. I simply do not understand politics or international affairs *at all*. I’ve tried and I always fail. Unless the goings-on are based in personal relationships, I’m likely to lose interest.

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

Ooh. Probably The Black Prince. Though I might actually choose an Iris Murdoch novel I’m less familiar with. Maybe The Sea, The Sea or The Sacred and Profane Love Machine - my next favourite two, and both of which I’ve only read once each.

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

The new Clémence Michallon which is published 8 August! Our Last Resort. Can’t wait to get my hands on it!

Thank you so much to Sophie for taking part and sharing her bookshelves with you. Do you share any favourite books with Sophie? I’d love to hear in the comments.

And just a reminder that most of the books she has come with an affiliate link to my bookshop.org author bookshop and so if you were to purchase one via a link it may result in me getting a few pennies — always a bonus!

See you next time for some more bookshelf snooping

…