Jojo Moyes: My life in books

Jojo Moyes shot to fame with her hit novel Me Before You, which was made into a film starring Emilia Clarke and Sam Claflin.

She now divides her time between writing novels and scriptwriting. Several of her other books, The Last Letter From Your Lover and The Horse Dancer, are currently being filmed, while her latest, The Giver Of Stars, has been optioned by Universal.

She lives in a 17th century farmhouse in Essex with her husband, journalist Charles Arthur, their three children and a menagerie of animals, including dogs and a horse.

Here, Moyes offers an insight into the books that have framed her life…

What’s on your reading list?

“I’ve just finished a really good debut novel by Kiley Reid called Such A Fun Age, a comedy of manners and embarrassment about race in the modern age. It’s about a young black nanny in America who is in charge of a white toddler and ends up in an altercation in a supermarket that isn’t her fault. The impact of this ripples outwards. I’ve made it sound much more serious than it is, but it’s beautifully written and observed, and the writing is really fresh.”

What’s on your ‘to read’ list?

“I’ve got the new Lisa Jewell, The Family Upstairs, which she’s just sent me. I love her books but I will want to read that in one greedy gulp. I need a whole day off before I can get stuck into that.

“Another book on my nightstand is Know My Name by Chanel Miller, the woman who was sexually assaulted by Brock Turner, which everybody I know who’s read it has said, ‘It’s amazing’. It’s really powerful that she has chosen to use her voice and maybe shed the idea of herself as a victim, to reframe her own narrative.”

Is there a book you’ve read more than once?

“National Velvet by Enid Bagnold. It never gets old. Most people know it from the Elizabeth Taylor film. It’s about a young woman who has a dream of a mad athletic feat (winning the Grand National), facilitated by her mother who was once a cross channel swimmer and who, in the book, has become obese and slightly unhappy.

“It’s such an act of love and faith that this mother believes that her sickly, dreamy, slightly daffy child can do this extraordinary thing.”

What book made you fall in love with reading?

“The Peter and Jane series. We all used to learn on these spellers called Peter and Jane and Pat the Dog. I used to race through them.”

What was your favourite childhood book?

“The Black Stallion by Walter Farley. I love my horses. I was an obsessive child. But it was also made into the most extraordinary film by Francis Ford Coppola which I watch periodically. I’ve made my kids watch it so much they groan when I get it out of the DVD case.”

Fiction or non-fiction?

“Fiction. There’s enough non-fiction in my life, thank you.”

Crime or romance?

“It depends what kind of mood I’m in. I love a bit of Lee Child, I really like Lisa Jewell’s psychological thrillers. I like a book with a bit of both. I love Kate Atkinson because with her Jackson Brodie books she takes crime into a different place.”

Where is your favourite place to read?

“In the summer months my favourite place to read is in the garden under a sunshade, resting on my dog. We have a very big dog (called BigDog), a rescue Great Pyrenees.

“We got her when she was seven and she was called Dragon, which we just thought was awful. And because we already had a little dog, Alfie, we somehow got into calling her BigDog. She’s like a huge sofa cushion you can rest your head on, and that’s her idea of heaven as well.”

Are there gaps in your reading?

“Oh yes, huge gaps. I’m ashamed to say I’ve never read any Russian literature and every year I tell myself, ‘This is the year I’m going to read some Brothers Karamazov or Dostoevsky’. I need to rectify it, especially now that my daughter is better read than I am.”

Any books you thought were better than the film?

 
“There are lots of books I think were equally as good as the film. I loved Cold Mountain, I loved The English Patient. But the book of National Velvet is so much deeper than the film.”

The Giver Of Stars by Jojo Moyes is published by Michael Joseph.

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