The books Spectator readers take on their summer holidays

Recently, Spectator writers shared their all-time favourite summer holiday reads. In response, Spectator readers have been offering their own recommendations for what books to take to the beach…

‘You might try Helen Thompson’s Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st Century, a history of oil politics. It starts with the simple fact that in evolving from the steam to petroleum age, the old western powers no longer had direct access to fuel and faced a growing dependency on oil from Russia, initially, and then the Middle East. The US, of course, is an exception as it has domestic resources – but foreign policy errors led to it being the guarantor of petroleum resources to the rest of Nato. When they couldn’t deliver, Germany, among others, turned to the Soviet Union – and the Soviet Union turned into Russia… which brings us up to date. Great read.’

‘One of my favourite holiday reads, discovered in a bookcase in a chalet in Thredbo, is A Summer Place by Sloan Wilson. I love my battered old copy, it reminds me of holidays past.’

‘A re-read of Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin naval series for me. I regularly take them out and dip into one or the other. They are so good, there is always something new I’ve missed on the previous reads. Don’t have to be on holiday to enjoy them. They are old friends.’

‘My favourite P.G. Wodehouse must be Uncle Dynamite, a classic ‘Uncle Fred’. The plot is ingenious. Worth reading again and again. Another great novel to read on holiday is Graham Greene’s Our Man in Havana.’

‘Love the whole of George MacDonald Fraser’s Flashman Papers series but the original Flashman is the one I have returned to, endlessly.’

‘P.G. Wodehouse’s Right Ho, Jeeves, for all the telegrams at the beginning. And Jill the Reckless, for all the backstage stuff about putting on a musical.’

‘Colin Watson’s Flaxborough series is a wry look back on the old world of policing in the 1960s and 1970s. Oh – and Garrison Keillor makes me laugh longer than anyone.’

‘Colin Watson’s Flaxborough series again – particularly Hopjoy Was Here.’

‘I like to dip into ebooks by self-published authors from time to time and came across two I really liked. One was Witch-bottles and Windlestraws by Joy Stonehouse, set in a village outside Filey on the North Yorkshire coast. She’s written three books in the series following the lives of actual people in the 18th century. She traced them through parish records and the attention to historical detail is wonderful – especially domestic detail. I also liked Me Nobby Grog by Jacqui Higgins which is a crime detective set in Robin Hood’s Bay. It has flashbacks to the smuggling era which the village was noted for. This book too shows an assiduous attention to historical detail. Such authors do not have a barrage of traditional publisher support, but it kind of makes them raw and unglossy and adds to their appeal. I hate it when publishers try to muscle in on the authentic voice of the writer. They can’t do it with the older novels but it’s too often there with the newer novels.’

‘The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives by Zbigniew Brzeziński.’

‘If you want a decent thriller, try anything from the pen of the prolific John Sandford. I’m about halfway through Antony Beevor’s Russia: Revolution and Civil War 1917-1921 and it’s brilliant, as one might expect.’

‘Yes to Richmal Crompton, yes to Jerome K. Jerome. I would not spend my time reading on holiday normally, except on the flight or the interminable wait in the airport. But a big fat Stephen King keeps me occupied.’