Top tip: Her by Harriet Lane
This understated tale of middle-class revenge bounces between Archway’s mean streets and the leafy slopes of Highgate. Like Lane’s haunting debut Alys Always, the new novel Her lingers long after the last, bleak page. Written in careful, subtle prose, it’s a tale of two women with very different lives – Emma a struggling mother, Nina a successful artist – connected by an event that occurred many years before. While the author’s focus is on the minutiae of life, the repeat narration of events by alternating protagonists builds suspense, right up to the unsettling climax. Lots of revealing insight into the stresses of motherhood too, and local colour abounds: Nina’s studio is in a former piano factory in Kentish Town, she has lunch at Mario’s Cafe, and there’s frequent contemplation of “scruffy” north London. Read Harriet Lane’s inspiration for Her here
Nine more to consider
Her Fearful Symmetry, Audrey Niffenegger
Creepy tale of identical twins set in a flat overlooking Highgate Cemetery.
The Fields Beneath, Gillian Tindall
Not your average “beach read” but as fascinating a story of an urban village (in this case Kentish Town) as you’ll ever read. Read our interview with her here.
Notes on a Scandal, Zoe Heller
All time classic study of loneliness and obsession set in Archway, on the Heath and the surrounding areas. The film, starring Judi Dench, is just as good, too.
Hollow Man, Oliver Harris
Crime romp featuring corrupt Hampstead detective Nick Belsey; also recommended is its sequel, Deep Shelter, just published.
How We Met, Katy Regan
The main character in this slice of chicklit lives in Kentish Town.
NW, Zadie Smith
Strangely, Smith glides over Kentish Town in this tale of four inter-connected lives, but there’s plenty of Camden, Kilburn, Swiss Cottage, and Archway.
Jimmy Coates: Blackout, Joe Craig
Children’s author Craig pens this series of action-thrillers aimed mainly at the 8-13 crowd and set in prime NW5 locations like the Forum.
Tomorrow’s Past, Emma Dally
Near-incest, murder, domestic abuse, horse castration, home abortions and prostitutes (on Leverton Street, if you please!) in this 1940s-set family saga in NW5.
Murder Underground, Mavis Doriel Hay
30s detective novel recently just republished about a murder at Belsize Park station.
Got a favourite read set in the area? Namecheck it below for other readers to discover.
3 thoughts on “Ten of the best: summer reading tips”
For anyone interested in local history, George and Wheedon Grossmith’s The Diary of a Nobody is a north London classic. Based in late Victorian Holloway (then a new suburb), it charts 15 months in the life of hapless, deluded City clerk Charles Pooter. It’s a brilliantly detailed account of another era.
Great choice. We mentioned it here recently too: http://www.kentishtowner.co.uk/2014/06/12/37-things-never-knew-tufnell-park/2/
The Beach Beneath The Pavement – an extravagant philosophical satire about how we make sense of a world where no one believes in anything, set in a part of London very close in space and time to our own.
http://www.beachbeneathpavement.co.uk
(OK, I admit I wrote it)