I'm very excited to read the latest book by Matt Cain, ex-editor of Channel 4 News and Attitude, who's written a coming of age and coming out story about a young boy growing up in Bolton whose Auntie Jan's gift of the "Lucky Star" single for his ninth birthday transforms his life. It's bound to be a joyous romp and I'm saving it for my holidays with great anticipation!

Look At Me by Anita Brookner

One of my favourite books by one of my favourite authors. It's very sad and poignant; the heroine's long walk home through London by night, heartbroken, is a scene I read for the first time with my eyes as wide as if I were watching a horror film, transfixed, wanting to look away but unable to. Warning: do NOT read this book if you are feeling in any way anxious or emotionally delicate, as it's a devastating story about social invisibility. Exquisitely written and, as you can see, really stays with the reader!

The Birthgrave Trilogy, by Tanith Lee 

I've rarely met anyone who's read Tanith Lee's superb fantasy trilogy about a young woman's journey to find out who she is, from horrendous beginnings to the maturity not to define herself through the man she's with. But I strongly recommend it, especially to twenty-something women, the age she was when she wrote it and I when I first read it. It's a careening adventure story with a shocker of an ending, and highly original."