LESLEY PEARSE
The bestselling novelist shares her top five reads with Judith Spelman
Judith Spelman
Lesley Pearse had her first book published when she was 49 and soon proved herself to be a firm favourite with fans across the world. It is said that a book written by Lesley is sold in the UK every four minutes! Her latest book, Liar, published by Michael Joseph, is her 28th and there is no sign of her slowing down.
Having lived an eventful life and working at a variety of jobs – corsetry sales, musician’s muse, nanny, gift shop owner, dressmaker and more – she turned to writing following the love and security she found with her third husband, discovering she was a natural storyteller. She is inspired by stories of courage and adversity survived by others. Her research is detailed and thorough and she produces strong storylines and believable characters.
Lesley has faithful readers worldwide and more than 10million copies of her books have been sold globally.
COLD COMFORT FARM
by Stella Gibbons
‘Following the death of her parents, and unwilling to work for a living, Flora Poste invites herself to her hitherto unknown relatives at Cold Comfort Farm, at Howling in Sussex. They are a very strange bunch, and bossy Flora sets to work to organise them all. This book was written in the 1930s, a spoof on the sombre, country folk stories which were popular at the time. To me it is killingly funny, Ada Doom the matriarch for instance stays up in her room because “she saw something nasty in the woodshed.” Handsome Seth is the Romeo of the family. Each year when the sukebind is in flower, another of his offsprings is born in the village. Urk does something weird with water voles, Elphin stands in fields and spouts poetry. All the many characters are extremely memorable, even Big Business the bull. I have re-read it at many different times in my life, and each time I find something to make me giggle. No wonder it became a classic which is still in print after ninety years and still selling well.’