Wendy Holden

Recent Reading

Venice by Jan Morris

A travel classic which I'm reading to feed my Serenissima addiction. I'm currently obsessed with the idea of living in the celebrated lagooned city – call it Venice envy. Jan's majestic ramble through history, culture was also really useful on our holiday – she boils down the sights to about five essentials, which is why I went up two belltowers.

Heidi by Johanna Spyri

Heidi is an adorable moppet who is kind to old people and likes nothing better than romping around on the pastures marvelling at the sunsets and wild flowers. Her best friend is nice but dim goatherd Peter and she lives with the original grumpy grandfather in a mountain hut where she has a bed made of straw in an attic. I adored this book as a child (and still do) and am trying to get my own children interested; the idea of a child who sleeps in old sacks and gets excited about goats is proving a challenge, however…

The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side Agatha Christie

Murder on the Blue Trainby Agatha Christie

I'm now seriously addicted to Agatha, especially as I've found a second hand bookshop in Bloomsbury where I can get wonderful Sixties paperbacks with yellowing pages and lurid covers. I adored both of these, can't decide whether I like Poirot or Marple best. Probably the latter if I really had to choose, I love all the cosy St Mary Mead stuff. But I loved the Blue Train especially, this being the choo choo I get annually down to the Riviera from Paris and so it was full of places I recognised. It didn't mention the most amazing Blue Train connection though which is that Le Train Bleu, the restaurant by the TB platform in the Gare de Lyon, has the rudest ever classical ceiling paintings; you can see right up the goddess's skirts. It's near-gynacecological. What would Miss Marple say!

A Harlot High And Low by Honore de Balzac

There's a courtesan in it called Torpedo – what’s not to like?

Death Comes As The End by Agatha Christie

I'm having a bit of an Agatha moment. This crazy crime caper is set in Ancient Egypt. Who killed the evil, beautiful Nofret? Not who you’d think, obviously!

Our Island Storyby H E Marshall

I'm trying to interest the children in British history – an uphill struggle. This gung-ho Edwardian children's primer is great fun for me though!

The Importance of Being Kennedy by Laurie Graham

Laurie and I just did the Harrogate Literary Festival together. She is a great heroine of mine and this book is her at her best - funny, wry and beautifully sad. It's the fictional lost diaries of the one-time Kennedy's nanny; an elegy for lost times and tragic, glamorous people. I felt bereaved myself when I'd finished it.

The Lodger by Charles Nicholl

I found this book in the Samaritans' shop in Chesterfield! The lodger in question is Shakespeare, who apparently rented a room in a City house full of rather racy French people at the height of his fame. Nicholl's a sort of literary gumshoe, piecing together the evidence of what the Bard's London life was like. Did he have affairs? And why was Brentford a byword for adulterous sex?! Fascinating stuff.

Longitude by Dava Sobell

I never read this when all the fuss was going on but after a visit to the Greenwich Observatory at the weekend I'm fascinated by everything nautical and astrological. It's the story of how John Harrison, an obscure Lincoln clock maker, solved the longitude problem and, making shipping safe, basically founded the British Empire. Cool!

Don Juan by Lord Byron

I love the club-footed, weight-obsessed, strapped-for-cash philanderer and I'm always reading this most famous of his poems on and off. I got about halfway through about six months ago and now I'm going back for more. It's the size of a novel, and once you get into it, certain parts are extremely funny, as well as extremely rude

Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

I love Dickens' mixture of tearjerking pathos and furious satire. Every writer should read him. Nicholas is a fabulous hero – handsome, kind and witty.

Kate and Wills by Up The Aisle

Hilarious royal wedding spoof photo album from lookalikes queen Alison Jackson. But some pics are very rude so have to hide from the kids.

Graven With Diamonds by Nicola Shulman

Atmospheric biography of one of my favourite historical characters, the dashing Elizabethan poet Thomas Wyatt.

Parisian Chic by Ines de la Fressange

I felt my image needed an overhaul and while I might not take her advice on black towels or wearing two jackets at once, there's lots of good stuff here.