The books on Chris Cleave’s bedside table

Harmless Like You by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan – I was lucky enough to meet the writer & pick up a proof copy of her forthcoming novel at a recent book event. It is sublime – calm, profound, beautifully controlled and with startling splashes of colour.

My Name is Leon by Kit de Waal – this comes out in summer and is absolutely unmissable. Leon is pure goodwill in a wicked world, and he won’t leave you when you put this unique book down. Authentic and beautiful, urgent and honest, this novel does what only the best do: it quietly makes room in your heart. 

The Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard – I recently heard her biographer, Artemis Cooper, talking about the writer’s life and was moved to buy all her novels. She is as good as everyone says she is – incredibly insightful, subtle and mordantly funny in a way that is not always obvious. It’s taken me a while to tune in to her style. I keep having to go back a page and think “Wait, did she really just?… oh, wait, it’s even better than that…”

How to Read Water by Tristan Gooley – I’ve been a fan of all Tristan’s books, which have helped my wife and me to rebrand a lot of family walks as adventures for our children. His explanations of the natural world are endlessly fascinating – light and engaging without being trivial. He gives you the tools to start deciphering natural clues for yourself, and suddenly the whole countryside begins to open up for a desensitised urbanite like me.

A Quiet Life by Natasha Walter – this is her first novel and it is absolutely amazing. She has long been a hero of mine for her work with refugees, and her non-fiction is hugely well-known and respected, but it’s stunning the way she has switched to fiction without missing a beat. It is almost unfair. 

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