Check out these unmissable classics
It’s never too late to pick up a book and get reading. In an age when we're surrounded by the likes of Harry Potter, it's tempting to wonder why we should return to musty old classics. Yet these five should be read by anyone who has the ability – and here’s why.
5. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
One of the most cited favourite books of all time, Pride and Prejudice really lives up to its reputation. It was originally published in 1813 and follows the story of the Bennett daughters' quest to get married.
You’ll soon be transported into the world of Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett and you won’t ever want to leave, so long as you can cope with nineteenth-century English!
The humour still resonates today and the strong characters are what make this novel unforgettable.
4. Nice Work by David Lodge
David Lodge’s 1988 campus comedy is perhaps not as widely well known as Pride and Prejudice, but Nice Work is hugely funny.
Set in the 1970s, Vic Wilcox is a typical businessman supporting his wife and three children, but when a Shadow Scheme means that English Literature lecturer Robyn has to follow him around at work, his life is turned upside down.
Nice Work is full of laughs and conflicting values, and it’s a must-read so that we can recognise how society has changed in the decades since gender inequality was rife in the workplace.
3. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
From gender inequality to racial inequality, Harper Lee’s 1960 novel To Kill A Mockingbird faces up to the situation of the judicial system in Alabama in the 1930s.
When Tom Robinson is accused of raping a white girl, Atticus Finch agrees to defend him despite the racial abuse he receives for it.
Lee’s novel is striking for its ingenuity in writing the whole story through the eyes of Atticus Finch's young daughter Scout, who has to grow up in a world where prejudice is the currency. If she can realise the injustice of what happens to Tom Robinson, then so should we all.
2. White Teeth by Zadie Smith
Zadie Smith’s White Teeth may be a long novel, but the pages whizz by. Published in 2000, White Teeth follows the lives of three families who all live in North London and whose paths will cross in unexpected ways.
Smith’s easy style of narration is very amusing and surprising for such a young author. Don’t be put off by the size of this novel, because it’s easy to read and the story is sustained throughout.
It's full of laugh-out-loud moments and is even renowned for inventing the genre of hysterical realism.
1. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
When I started this novel, I would never have guessed that it would be so moving. McCarthy’s The Road, published in 2006, is set in a post-apocalyptic America where some have turned to cannibalism to survive.
A man and his son are trying to stay safe from the cannibals and travel to the sea in the hope of finding others like them, but with food and shelter scarce, their chances of survival seem slim. Will they manage to stay alive?
This is one of my all-time favourite books and it will move you to tears. If you only read one novel in your life, this has to be it.
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