‘It will renew your faith in humanity’: books to bring comfort in dark times
The best literary comfort reads rebuild our strength so we can face reality, argues novelist Francesca Segal. She picks her ultimate reading list – with help from Nick Hornby, Sathnam Sanghera and Naomi Alderman
August 2024
The books of my life
Novelist Francesca Segal: ‘Wuthering Heights did peculiar things to my romantic expectations’
The author on reading Emily Brontë as a teenager, becoming consumed by the Patrick Melrose novels, and the magic of listening to the Midnight’s Children audiobook in Manhattan
May 2024
Five of the best
Five of the best escapist books
From celebrity-clogged Italian villages to a Yorkshire Dales veterinary classic and an arty Manhattan affair, these books offer a dose of joy
April 2020
Book clinic
Which novels or memoirs will help prepare me for motherhood?
Francesca Segal recommends literary explorations of new emotional territory
June 2019
Self and wellbeing
Breast milk donations kept my tiny daughters alive
A drop of breast milk – enough to feed a kitten – fed one mother’s twins, but formal support for donations is under-funded
November 2018
Book clinic
Book clinic: which books can help me weather my parents’ divorce?
A selection of books to offer guidance and comfort through painful times
October 2013
Sense & Sensibility by Joanna Trollope – review
Austen and Trollope are a natural marriage, writes Francesca Segal
March 2012
Noughties by Ben Masters – review
University novels are tricky. Does Ben Masters pull it off? By Francesca Segal
