Escape Artists

Ian Patterson examines the notion of building a personal library, reflecting on how books map the contours of a life and commemorate moments and losses. Drawing on his own experiences as a Cambridge academic and poet, he explores ordering systems, vocational collections, and the emotional resonance of unread or inherited books. The book considers practical challenges of relocating and downsizing a collection while attending to the relationships books create between past and present. Patterson also meditates on chance encounters in physical libraries that algorithms cannot replicate and the danger of losing that browsing culture. Through personal anecdote and cultural observation, it is both a manifesto for valuing books and a memoir of how libraries shape identity.

Edited by Jennie Orchard, this collection gathers essays from a wide range of contributors—writers, academics, librarians, and activists—about nurturing reading in children and young people. The anthology mixes practical advice, passionate pleas, and classroom reflections aimed at normalizing reading as a pleasurable, communal habit rather than a virtuous chore. Contributors discuss techniques such as shared reading times, modeling reading behavior, and presenting books as adventures rather than obligations. The book embraces inclusivity, addressing different audiences from parents to educators and even younger readers themselves. Overall, it is an energetic, hopeful work focused on ensuring reading remains a meaningful part of childhood and beyond.

Ann Morgan reflects on reading strategies that challenge the reader's instinct to 'get it right' and instead celebrate uncertainty, curiosity and encountering the unfamiliar. Drawing on her own projects—most notably reading a book from every country—she argues for reading beyond comfortable algorithms and taste-based filters. The book encourages confronting dislikes as meaningful engagement, modeling not-knowing in classrooms, and allowing texts to unsettle rather than be neatly decoded. Morgan links these practices to deeper empathy and a broader cultural literacy that resists narrow reading habits. Her approach is both practical and philosophical, urging readers to expand their literary horizons and accept ambiguity as part of the reading experience.

Mark Haddon's illustrated memoir combines text, photographs, collages and cartoons to present a vivid, often blunt account of his unhappy childhood and its long-term emotional effects. The memoir eschews melodrama, offering clear, unsentimental vignettes that reveal an absence of parental affection and pervasive fear in the household. Haddon also addresses his struggles with hypochondria, depression and self-harm, including a candid recent episode documented in the book. Interwoven are reflections on his artistic life, mythic interests, and how creativity helped him survive and build a different life for his own family. The result is a brave, original book that balances humor, honesty and visual inventiveness.