CS Lewis’s Oxford
Simon Horobin
Bodleian, £30, pp232
The connections between CS Lewis and his adopted city of Oxford, where he produced his most important writing, are famous. What Simon Horobin’s rigorous but accessible study manages to do is ground Lewis in a contradictory milieu and offer insight into his life and work that stretches far beyond the cliches of dreaming spires, Shadowlands (the account of his relationship with Joy Davidman) and literary discussion group the Inklings. Instead, the Lewis who emerges from this fascinating book is a flawed yet likably childlike figure, who never wholly grew up, and whose writing was all the better for it.
True Love
Paddy Crewe
Doubleday, £16.99, pp320
If your taste in romantic novels is less hearts and flowers and more closely observed social grit, Paddy Crewe’s excellent second book will be one of the best things that you read all year. Detailing the tense, emotionally demanding relationship that unfolds between two young people in the 80s, True Love demonstrates an innate knack for the mundane rhythms of speech and the small details that make up a life. While there are some welcome, understated humorous moments, the cumulative emotional charge here reveals Crewe’s significant literary talent.
Loosely Based on a Made-Up Story
James Blunt
Constable, £16.99, pp304 (paperback)
The words “riotously entertaining” and “James Blunt” may seem an unlikely fit, but the singer’s compulsively readable and often laugh-out-loud memoir swiftly establishes itself in the premier league of musicians’ autobiographies. Dealing with everything from his time serving in the army in Kosovo to his bacchanalian and rewarding friendship with Carrie Fisher, Blunt is a supremely talented raconteur with a knack for self-deprecation. Even if you’ve never listened to a single song he’s recorded, this swashbuckling account of a frankly absurd life is well worth your time.
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