This is an adaptation of something I saw on Twitter – people were posting 26 books in 26 days, each title beginning with a different letter of the alphabet. Don’t worry – I’m planning on taking around 26 months to get to Z. Each month I’ll post a newish book I’ve enjoyed, plus a children’s book and an older book.

Today, it’s the ‘H’ books:

First up is Her Husband’s Secrets by Louise Mangos. This engaging thriller was originally published as The Art of Deception and tells the story of Lucie, who’s in prison in Switzerland, wrongly accused of her husband’s murder – and meanwhile, her six-year-old son is in danger. I especially enjoyed the prison sequences, and the way the flashback chapters wove Lucie’s past into the present day story. Highly recommended.

The Horse and His Boy is the third in C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia series. I was thirteen before I read the Narnia books. I arrived at secondary school and discovered quite a few books my classmates had read and I’d never heard of, including The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the first in the series. My favourite of the seven has to be The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

Gerald Durrell’s books are entertainment pure. In this one, he’s in Africa and Canada filming his TV series and coping with uncooperative animals – and TV producers. I love his animal books, but the funniest are the ones about his family and other doings. If you haven’t read The Picnic and Suchlike Pandemonium, get it NOW.

Coming next month: the ‘I’ books.