I devoured this complex portrait of Thomas Mann, the most celebrated novelist of his age and Nobel laureate, and of the family orbiting him. Tóibín brings to life his perceptive and steadfast wife Katia and their six singular children, each shaped by ambition, exile and the moral pressures of their time, set against war and the long shadow of fascism and the Cold War.

Another novel circling the life of a celebrated, though fictional, writer and the family shaped by his presence. Sicily, 1999. The court of revered novelist Don Travers gathers around him, four children, a silent and watchful wife Lydia, and a revolving cast of admirers. It feels darker and more unsettling, probing influence, loyalty and the cost of living in a great man’s shadow.

John Wright distils decades of experience, including his time as resident forager at River Cottage, into a practical month by month guide to Britain’s edible landscape. March brings a quiet sense of promise as the ground begins to stir. Nettles, wild garlic and dandelions are at their best, alongside lesser known finds waiting in hedgerows, woodland edges and damp spring meadows.

With brighter, warmer days returning, the kids are back outside, running, digging, inventing games that end with muddy hands and flushed cheeks. Channel that energy into simple, satisfying projects for gardens and windowsills. From sowing seeds and watching them push through, to picking fruit and making a terrarium for a bedroom shelf, it turns curiosity into something they can tend and grow.

I’m a big fan of Anne Tyler’s quiet, thoughtful style and have read all of her books. Through shifting perspectives, from a difficult mother to her children, the novel traces sibling rivalry, disappointment, loyalty and longing, a slow heartache unfolding in everyday moments, unfinished meals, and the things left unsaid. It’s a book I find myself returning to every few years.

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, The Overstory is a vast, quietly radical novel that draws disparate lives together through their relationship with trees. Powers moves between intimate human stories and the towering patience of forests, asking us to reconsider scale, time and responsibility, and what it might mean to live with greater attention.