Shelf life
The multi-award winning sports author Duncan Hamilton shares the books that get his top scores
Duncan Hamilton
The Age of Innocence
by Edith Wharton
‘My bookshelves will tell you that about two thirds of the fiction I read is written by women: Pat Barker, Penelope Lively, Anita Brookner, Irmgard Keun, Helen Dunmore, Rose Tremain, Hiromi Kawakam, Elena Ferrante, etc, etc: Strange as it sounds – or perhaps even cockeyed –I particularly admire Edith Wharton because her fiction always reminds me what a non-fiction writer must do to make the dry bones of history dance a little. She’s so fabulously observant when it comes to describing a room, a face, a mannerism or movement or a voice. Her characters live. You get to know them and the place in which they dwell. In fact, you almost feel you’ve met them.’