Twelve Books About Books and Writers
I’ve selected twelve books I think you might enjoy if, like me, you love reading books about books, or about writers - whether they’re fictional stories of real-life authors and playwrights or completely imaginary ones. I’ve read many of these, and highly recommend them. The ones I haven’t read are on my bookshelves or Kindle and I’m very much looking forward to them! I think they all sound amazing.
The Case of the Missing Bronte by Robert Barnard
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On my bookshelf - cosy mystery.
“Superintendent Perry Trethowan is returning to London with his wife Jan after visiting his difficult family in Northumberland. Driving through the Yorkshire Dales their car breaks down, and they find themselves stranded in a small village for the night.
Taking refuge in the local pub for the evening, Perry and Jan are joined by Miss Edith Wing, a seemingly unremarkable woman with an extraordinary document in her possession.
Is this really, as she claims, an undiscovered novel by one of the Brontë sisters - sure to be a literary sensation - or simply an extremely clever forgery?
When both Perry and Miss Wing find themselves in mortal danger, what starts out as a harmless diversion for Robert Barnard's determined policeman, turns into a hunt for a vicious attacker, in this classic mystery from a master of the genre.”
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
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Related reading: My Thoughts on Hamnet
Read and loved! Literary fiction.
“A LOVE THAT DRAWS THEM TOGETHER. A LOSS THAT THREATENS TO TEAR THEM APART.
The untold love story that inspired Shakespeare's greatest masterpiece.
On a summer's day in 1596, a young girl in Stratford-upon-Avon takes to her bed with a sudden fever. Her twin brother, Hamnet, searches everywhere for help. Why is nobody at home?
Their mother, Agnes, is over a mile away, in the garden where she grows medicinal herbs. Their father is working in London.
Neither parent knows that Hamnet will not survive the week.
Hamnet tells the powerful story of Agnes and Will, and of the son whose life has been all but forgotten, but who inspired one of the greatest plays ever written.”
Bookworm by Lucy Mangan
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On my bookshelf! Non-fiction and a lovely nostalgia trip into our favourite childhood books.
“A love letter to the joys of childhood reading from Wonderland to Narnia.
When Lucy Mangan was little, stories were everything. They opened up new worlds and cast light on all the complexities she encountered in this one.
She was whisked away to Narnia - and Kirrin Island - and Wonderland. She ventured down rabbit holes and womble burrows into midnight gardens and chocolate factories. She wandered the countryside with Milly-Molly-Mandy, and played by the tracks with the Railway Children. With Charlotte's Web she discovered Death and with Judy Blume it was Boys. No wonder she only left the house for her weekly trip to the library or to spend her pocket money on amassing her own at home.
In Bookworm, Lucy revisits her childhood reading with wit, love and gratitude. She relives our best-beloved books, their extraordinary creators, and looks at the thousand subtle ways they shape our lives. She also disinters a few forgotten treasures to inspire the next generation of bookworms and set them on their way.
Lucy brings the favourite characters of our collective childhoods back to life - prompting endless re-readings, rediscoveries, and, inevitably, fierce debate - and brilliantly uses them to tell her own story, that of a born, and unrepentant, bookworm.”
Yellowface by Rebecca F Kuang
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Related Reading: My Five-Star Reads of 2025
Read and loved! Literary fiction.
“THIS IS ONE HELL OF A STORY.
IT’S JUST NOT HERS TO TELL.
When failed writer June Hayward witnesses her rival Athena Liu die in a freak accident, she sees her opportunity… and takes it.
So what if it means stealing Athena’s final manuscript?
So what if it means ‘borrowing’ her identity?
And so what if the first lie is only the beginning…
Finally, June has the fame she always deserved. But someone is about to expose her…
What happens next is entirely everyone else's fault.”
Miss Buncle’s Book by D.E. Stevenson
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Read and loved! Cosy village story with humour and romance
Village intrigue as Miss Buncle’s book is published under a male pseudonym and her furious neighbours try to track down the culprit!
“In Miss Buncle’s Book Barbara Buncle, who is unmarried and perhaps in her late thirties, lives in a small village and writes a novel about the village in order to try and supplement her meagre income. She thereby succeeds in taking charge of her own life. This is an entirely light-hearted, easy read, one of those books like Mariana, Miss Pettigrew, The Making of a Marchioness and Greenery Street which can be recommended unreservedly to someone looking for something undemanding, fun and absorbing – that is also well-written and intelligent and with an entirely original plot. DE Stevenson (1892-1973) sold 4 million copies of her books in the UK and 3 million in America; Miss Buncle’s Book is the first title by this unassuming, shrewd and kind-hearted author to have been reprinted in the UK for fifty years.”
The Mystery of Mrs Christie by Marie Benedict
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On my bookshelf! Historical fiction.
“The New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Only Woman in the Room returns with a thrilling reconstruction of one of the most notorious events in literary history: Agatha Christie's mysterious 11-day disappearance in 1926.
In December 1926, Agatha Christie goes missing. Investigators find her empty car on the edge of a deep, gloomy pond, the only clues some tire tracks nearby and a fur coat left in the car--strange for a frigid night. Her World War I veteran husband and her daughter have no knowledge of her whereabouts, and England unleashes an unprecedented manhunt to find the up-and-coming mystery author. Eleven days later, she reappears, just as mysteriously as she disappeared, claiming amnesia and providing no explanations for her time away.
The puzzle of those missing eleven days has persisted. With her trademark historical fiction exploration into the shadows of the past, acclaimed author Marie Benedict brings us into the world of Agatha Christie, imagining why such a brilliant woman would find herself at the center of such murky historical mysteries.
What is real, and what is mystery? What role did her unfaithful husband play, and what was he not telling investigators?
Agatha Christie novels have withstood the test of time, due in no small part to Christie's masterful storytelling and clever mind that may never be matched, but Agatha Christie's untold history offers perhaps her greatest mystery of all.
Fans of The Secrets We Kept, The Lions of Fifth Avenue, and The Alice Network will enjoy this riveting saga of literary history, suspense, and love gone wrong.”
In Love with Love by Ella Risbridger
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Currently reading! Non-fiction and perfect for fans of romance novels.
“Smart, funny and passionate: An ode to a beloved genre and a brilliantly insightful piece of cultural criticism
Cowboys and aliens, dukes and dancers, power dynamics, death and domesticity, vampires and veterans, tradwives and single dads and sisters and small-town politics, private jets and princes and horses, hopes and dreams and fears, and so, so much kissing: this is a love letter to romantic fiction, but it's also a book about creativity and creation and the job of art in this crazy old world.
Why do we read? Why do we write? What makes some books last forever, and others vanish from memory? What is the point of everything, anything, when everything - especially romantic love - is so fleeting in the grand scheme of things? How do we love when the world is falling apart? And what does it mean that love is the one subject of which we never seem to tire?
Part literary criticism, part investigation, total passion project, In Love with Love is a wild tour from the very beginnings of kissing in books through historic trends, favourite tropes, beloved friends and brand-new loves, from Jane Austen to Jasmine Guillory, Jilly Cooper to Georgette Heyer, from the depths of the ocean to the furthest reaches of the outer galaxy . . .”
Death of an Author by E.C.R. Lorac
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On my bookshelf! Cosy mystery.
“'I hate murders and I hate murderers, but I must admit that the discovery of a bearded corpse would give a fillip to my jaded mind.'
Vivian Lestrange – celebrated author of the popular mystery novel The Charterhouse Case and total recluse – has apparently dropped off the face of the Earth. Reported missing by his secretary Eleanor, whom Inspector Bond suspects to be the author herself, it appears that crime and murder is afoot when Lestrange’s housekeeper is also found to have disappeared.
Bond and Warner of Scotland Yard set to work to investigate a murder with no body and a potentially fictional victim, as E C R Lorac spins a twisting tale full of wry humour and red herrings, poking some fun at her contemporary reviewers who long suspected the Lorac pseudonym to belong to a man (since a woman could apparently not have written mysteries the way that she did).
Incredibly rare today, this mystery returns to print for the first time since 1935.”
Little Women by Louisa M Alcott
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Read and loved! Literary fiction/children’s classic/romance/family
Aw, who can forget Jo’s determination to become a writer, and her unexpected romance with the Professor?
“Little Women is one of the best-loved children's stories of all time, based on the author's own youthful experiences. It describes the family life of the four March sisters living in a small New England community, Meg, the eldest, is pretty and wishes to be a lady; Jo, at fifteen is ungainly and unconventional with an ambition to be an author; Beth is a delicate child of thirteen with a taste for music and Amy is a blonde beauty of twelve.
The story of their domestic adventures, their attempts to increase the family income, their friendship with the neighbouring Lawrence family, and their later love affairs remains as fresh and beguiling as ever.”
Five Windows by D.E. Stevenson
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On my Kindle. Humour, warmth, and it’s by D.E. Stevenson. Enough said!
“‘Life is like looking out of a lot of different windows.’
So says Malcolm, shepherd and boyhood friend of David Kirk, and the words linger in David’s mind as he reflects on his life so far. He recalls the window of his parents’ home in rural Scotland, where he acquires the moral code which will guide him and begins to realise his flair for writing. There’s the window of his uncle’s house in Edinburgh, where he attends school, and the rather dingy window of a boarding-house in London where he learns the darker side of life while beginning his work life. A much brighter fourth window, over a London bookshop, dramatically shifts David’s direction, and a fifth window . . . well, you’ll need to read the book to find out about that one!
In Five Windows, first published in 1953, we have one of D.E. Stevenson’s warmest and wisest tales, infused with her acute knowledge of human nature, her flair for characters both likable and not, and an irresistible blend of nostalgia, wit, occasional melancholy, romance, and ultimate happiness. It also features a cameo from two characters we’ll meet again in The Tall Stranger. This new edition includes an autobiographical sketch by the author.”
The White Priory Murders by Carter Dickson
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On my bookshelf. Classic crime.
“James Bennett has been invited to stay at White Priory for Christmas among the retinue of the glamorous Hollywood actress Marcia Tait. Her producer, her lover, the playwright for her next hit and her agent are all here, soon to become so many suspects when Tait is found murdered on a cold December morning in the lakeside pavilion. Only the footprints of her discoverer disturb the snow which fell overnight – and which stopped just shortly after Marcia was last seen alive. How did the murderer get in and out of the pavilion without leaving a trace?
When Bennett’s uncle, the cantankerous amateur sleuth Sir Henry Merrivale arrives from London to make sense of this impossible crime, the reader is treated to a feast of the author’s trademark twists, beguiling false answers and one of the most ingenious solutions in the history of the mystery genre.”
Bookish by Lucy Mangan
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On my bookshelf. Non-fiction and perfect for all book-lovers.
“A love letter to all those who come alive when they pull a new treasure off the shelf, stay up late reading just one more page and pack their suitcases with clothes wedged between books instead of the other way around.
From well-worn literary classics to steamy bonkbusters, gripping thrillers, young adult novels and other not-so-guilty pleasures Bookish brims with literary insights, wry observations and stellar recommendations. This is an ode to the bookish places – from local libraries to bookshops big and small – and the stories that make us who we are.”
I hope you find plenty there to enjoy. I didn’t include any biographies or autobiographies of authors, because this was purely about fiction. But I’ll probably return with a post about my favourite non-fiction works at a later date. Happy reading!
