The Inkling Volume 1

4. ‘Wide Sargasso Sea’ - Jean Rhys
5.
If you have slogged your way through Brontë’s Jane Eyre (it’s a brilliant read,
just… long) and loved it, you may want to steer clear of Rhys’ prequel for a while
which will warp your perspective of Brontë’s characters. I find it very hard to
remain fond of Rochester, and constantly have to remind myself to distance
Wide Sargasso Sea’s version of him from Brontë’s. Despite that, this was the
first book that really opened my eyes to questioning what we hold an ‘authentic’
or ‘true’ narrative, with Rhys exposing Britain’s colonial history dating back to
the empire. The passages set in Jamaica and Dominica are astounding in their
ability to transport the reader to another location, the humidity and heady
scents immediately hitting us through the page. Visceral in its quality of writing,
the final section of the novel never fails to raise goose-bumps.
‘36 Hours: 125 Weekends in Europe’ – The New York Times
For fear of being too fiction heavy, I thought I’d include this non-fiction
mammoth. A beautifully designed book, this guide to key cities in Europe
provides a snapshot of history and a thorough breakdown of where to go, sights
to see and what to eat in a 36 hour visit. I’ll book no holiday without consulting it
first.