5 Beautiful Novels to Read This Spring
Plus a FREE colouring print to download, share and enjoy
I had my first experience of flu last week. I have nothing to report other than it really, really sucked. Fevers, night sweats, lack of sleep, horrible cough, headache and a foggy feeling of fug still lingering. And most cruelly of all, I lost my appetite. What joy is there in a world without the anticipation of a good dins? Fortunately I’m now through the worst of it, and today I even managed to write a few words of my novel. This month I’m sharing another new colouring design for you to print, share and enjoy. It’s another spring themed one (obvs, gotta manifest those primavera vibes), a mandala-style design full of catkins, leaves and flowers. If you’re in need of a last-minute Mother’s Day card, I recommend printing this off in a smaller size, colouring it in and mounting it onto card. Perfecto!
Last week I received a cool package in the post - the first translation of my latest book Ebb and Flow: A Guide to Seasonal Living. The German edition is published by Knesebeck and features a salmon pink cover, with the title roughly translated as In Flow with the Seasons. I love it!
If you’ve already picked up a copy of Ebb and Flow (thank you!), you’ll know that within each season, I’ve included a selection of books and films to help you engage with the natural world. Today I thought I’d share five of my favourite fictional books from the Spring Reading List. Let me know if any of these are your favourites, too!
The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy (1887)
It’s a Hardy novel so at least one person will die tragically, but this is one of my favourites in terms of capturing the Wessex setting in all its leafy, verdant glory. There’s also a man trap in it, if I remember right? Deliciously gruesome.
The Beginning of Spring by Penelope Fitzgerald (1988)
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize, this novel follows a Moscow-born print shop owner whose wife suddenly abandons him and their three children. Lots of undercurrents of impending change, Easter, new life and greenery in the grey.
Bambi: A Life in the Woods by Felix Salten (1923)
As scarring as the Disney film was for everyone, I’m afraid to tell you the book is way worse in terms of brutal mother nature on display. However, it is a really beautiful story and was even banned by the Nazis for being a parable of Jewish persecution.
Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift (2016)
A moving and engrossing novella set on a single day in March 1924. It follows a turning point in an illicit affair between a housemaid and her upper-middle-class lover.
Duncton Wood by William Horwood (1980)
One of my husband’s favourite books, this series is for you if you’re a fan of Redwall or Watership Down. Duncton Wood is an allegorical fantasy about a community of moles (yes, moles) and their quest for freedom and spiritual truth.
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I had no idea about Bambi – what a great idea – thank you. And Penelope Fitzgerald taught me English (yes, wow) but I haven't read this one!
Oh my gosh, you are practically the only other person I know who has read "Bambi!" I've tried for decades to get folks to read it to no avail. Disney ruined it in that everyone thinks it's a children's book. Absolutely is not. It's also a bit of a Zen parable, in my opinion. My favorite chapter is the existential conversation between the two oak leaves in the autumn; it sends chills down my spine every time I read it.