Best winter reads 2017 – For your perusing pleasure
'You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.'
– C. S. Lewis.
Now that it's winter, we're inclined to agree with Mr Lewis. So indulge in our list of the best winter reads 2017 has to offer. We've chosen our favourite from the Man Booker shortlist, a chilling ghost story and Young Adult fiction that's been billed as the next Harry Potter.
It's a time for curling up and staying warm with nothing but the pages of your trusted companion for company. These recommendations will ensure that you pick a good one. Happy reading.
Do you know anyone who enjoys a good old fashioned ghost story? Then try chilling them with The Silent Companions. With her husband dead, Elsie is confined to a room in his country house for the remainder of her pregnancy. She's subject to visiting doctors, unfriendly locals and the ineffective ministrations of her cousin. But one day she finds a locked room. Inside is an old diary full of secrets and a wooden figurine that bears a striking resemblance to herself.
This is a claustrophobic tale, with shades of The Yellow Wallpaper, The Miniaturist and the novels of Susan Hill. Colchester-based writer Laura Purcell makes Gothic Victorian and Georgian queens her speciality, to devastatingly creepy effect.
