Nothing to Declare

I’d read Pride and Prejudice as a GCSE text. My appraisal as a fifteen-year old: take it or leave it. So when I picked up Emma a couple of years later, I wasn’t expecting much. But wow – this was different. The protagonist, Emma Woodhouse, is pretty obnoxious to be honest, an anti-hero of sorts, but also immensely likeable – funny, acerbic and full of energy. Maybe my first literary crush?! Of course, it’s a love story, but it’s not soppy. It’s brilliant. If I hadn’t enjoyed this so much, there’s no way I would have attempted to read Jane Eyre (by Charlotte Bronte) on a train journey from Arles in France to Venice in Italy (I read it from cover to cover in 24 hours #humblebrag). Admittedly, this is a novel I read at A Level. I mention it here though because it is unlike anything else I had ever read – it’s beautifully poetic, dark and gloomy, hopeful and cynical all at the same time. It’s set in 1920s New York and Long Island and is about a shadowy, mega-rich bootlegger named Jay Gatsby, formerly James Gatz, whose desperate attempt to win over the love of his life, Daisy Buchanan, ends in… well, read it and find out! I love this novel and often find myself flicking through its pages. It led me to read a lot of 20 th century American lit – Steinbeck, Salinger, Faulkner, Hemingway; and the playwrights Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams and Edward Albee. Back to 20 th century America I’m afraid, but the other coast to Gatsby . Set amongst the San Francisco fog and rolling hills, this is one of the defining novels of the detective genre. Often misunderstood as popular trash ( it’s origins lie in ‘pulp fiction’, cheap magazines printed on recycled or pulped paper), it’s superbly written. I remember the feeling of gloomy terror and unease as the mystery unravels. The novel is the source of numerous genre-defining moments. And it has allowed me to better appreciate films such as Pulp Fiction and Sin City (you’ll have to wait until you’re 18 to