Summer Reads to Refill The Creative Well

Over the next few weeks I’ll be spending some time at home, pottering about, and some time away. And I aim to spend lots of that time reading, seeing new sights, swimming in the sea, eating food that isn’t cooked by me and…well, that’s probably enough for me really.

I first came across the term ‘filling your well’ within The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. I’m not an enthusiastic fan of that book, but taking time out to refill my creative well is the best advice I’ve ever been given in my writing career.

It basically means replenishing your creative energy by taking in new images, ideas, and experiences. Reading is a huge part of that for me. As is going to different places. This summer, alongside a few days away, I hope to go to York (I need to go to the bookshops Criminally Good Books and the new Toppings) and possibly The Cotswolds. We also have tickets booked for Hamilton in the West End with Leslie Odom Jr and Jesus Christ Superstar with Sam Ryder.

I think that’s enough outings, as I also like to spend time at home (and need time at home to recover from being in crowds and noise).

Seven books are perhaps too many for a week’s holiday - do you think? Plus, I know I’ll buy one (or two) at the airport too; it’s tradition. I won’t pack them all; I’ll save some for home.

(Just a reminder: DeskMates is paused for a couple of weeks and will resume the first Monday in August.)

Rewilding by Jane Green

Bookends, Jemima J and Babyville were all favourite books of mine around the turn of the century, written by Jane Green. We were in the ‘chick-lit’ era with Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding, Cat, Sally and Pip by Freya North and Ralph’s Party by Lisa Jewell amongst many others. At the time, I was starting my new life and career in London, so the books were relatable.

I’ve no idea why I stopped reading these authors; perhaps I’d moved on to thrillers and murder, such as Tess Gerritsen, or maybe I didn’t read as much due to having young children. But I was very intrigued when I discovered recently that Jane Green has written a memoir.

Rewilding: Freedom, Friendship and Finding Our Way Home is described as part memoir, part battle cry. “For every woman who has ever felt invisible in her own story.”

I’m really looking forward to reading this. I’ll report back as it’s the behind-the-scenes of a writer. As you know, I love books that give me insight into a creative’s life.

The Man in the Wall by KJ Lyttleton

KJ Lyttleton is the pseudonym for Katie Lee ( Katie Lee ), who writes the Substack My Top Secret Project. Back in March 2024, Katie started her Substack by saying, with tongue, I presume, firmly in cheek, “in which I attempt to self-publish a hugely successful novel under a pen name without telling anyone about it...”

I may be wrong, but I think The Man in the Wall is her first novel that she has published. (It is the first in her Aldhill mysteries, and the second in the series is called A Star is Dead, which is also out now).

During my break, I’ll also be going through Katie’s Substack to learn more about her writing and self-publishing process and see what tips I can pick up. I find it (and her) really inspiring.

Anyway, The Man in the Wall is a crime book set in Aldhill-on-Sea. Phil McGinty is a journalist and knows her stepdad didn’t kill himself on a school building site; now she has five days working undercover to prove it. And DS Jen Collet is working on a case where a body has fallen out of a school wall. But the powers that be are unwilling to connect the two cases.

The Sunken Sailor by Patricia Moyes

This is the second in Moyes’s Inspector Tibbett mysteries. I really enjoyed the first in the series, Dead Men Don’t Ski; in fact, I gave it five stars.

Published in 1961, Inspector Henry Tibbett and his wife, Emmy, are once more on holiday - this time on a friend’s yacht, lazily sailing from one little English seaside town to the next. Tibbett, however, can’t stop thinking about the death of a local sailor and believes it's connected to a robbery at a nearby manor house.

Grey Mask by Patricia Wentworth

Two books by a Patricia, what are the odds? But actually, Patricia’s real name was Dora Amy Turnbull.

Grey Mask is the first of thirty-two books in the Miss Silver series of mysteries. (If I like this one, I have so many to look forward to reading!) Miss Maud Silver is a retired governess and teacher in London who becomes involved, much like Miss Marple, in unravelling mysteries.

I don’t want Agatha Christie to be the only author I read from the Golden Age era, so Patricia Wentworth is part of my expansion into mystery writers from that time.

Six Against the Yard by Members of the Detection Club (including Margery Allingham, Dorothy L. Sayers and with an essay by Agatha Christie)

Speaking of Agatha Christie and the Golden Age of crime writing, in this book, we have six writers aiming to outfox real-life Ex-Superintendent George Cornish of Scotland Yard. Each short story is analysed by the Ex-Superintendent, who points out the flaws.

Crime on the Fens by Joy Ellis

As you know if you’ve read my Substack newsletter for a while, I am obsessed with Elly Griffiths’ writing. I love her Dr Ruth Galloway series of books based in and around Norfolk.

Because of this, someone recommended Joy Ellis’s writing, which is based around the Lincolnshire Fens. I do love a good location. This is the first of the Nikki Galena series of crime books. Detective Nikki Galena will stop at nothing to avenge her daughter, but she might be being too tough on the criminals.

She’s been told to work with the new Detective Sergeant, Joseph Easter, or she’ll no longer have her job, and they join forces to save a young woman who goes missing on the marsh.

The Surgeon by Tess Gerritsen

I don’t know if this novel will make its way on holiday with me; I might actually start reading it today. I’ve read it before; in fact, I think I’ve read all (if not most) of Tess Gerritsen’s books before, but I want to start re-reading them.

Tess’s books are crime, thriller, murder mysteries that are not for the faint-hearted. You may have watched the Rizzoli and Isles series on television a few years ago. Well, this is where that duo came about.

Jane Rizzoli is a homicide detective, and Maura Isles is a medical examiner - the sort that performs autopsies. In The Surgeon, a killer is targeting lone women and Rizzoli suspects, by the nature of the injuries, that he is medically trained.

As I mentioned above, it’s always traditional for me to buy a book or two at the airport. This year I’m hoping to buy:

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

This is the winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2026. I don’t know much about it as I wanted to avoid spoilers, but I know it’s written in the form of letters and, I believe, emails. Ever since reading Janice Hallett’s murder mysteries and 84 Charing Cross Road, I’ve been partial to a book containing letters or emails.

Evans has been compared to Elizabeth Strout and Anne Tyler, and I’ve heard wonderful reviews.

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

The second book I’d like to try is Yesteryear. Again, I’ve heard lots of good things about this bestseller, and apparently it’s now being adapted into a film starring Anne Hathaway.

Again, I’ve tried to avoid reading too much about it - very difficult when it’s such a bestseller - but from what I understand, the protagonist, Natalie, has a life that makes her followers green with envy. Then something happens - and I stopped reading so as not to spoil the rest!