As the founder of Hay Festival and director of The Conversation, London’s newest literary festival, Peter Florence spends his time surrounded by ideas. Here are his top five books to inspire new ways of thinking.
Underland: A Deep Time Journey by Robert Macfarlane
A wondrous book about landscape and the living world that may change forever and for better how we see our planet and our place here.
Two Sisters by Åsne Seierstad
Like her unsparing study of Anders Breivik, One of Us, the Norwegian war reporter and investigative journalist takes us deep into the violent radicalisation of young westerners and journeys out of the society they grew up in and into the Syrian Jihad.
The Lives of the Caesars by Suetonius, translated by Tom Holland
Today’s Washington has nothing on Suetonius’s ancient Rome. You want to see crazy power run wild? Holland brings his dearest “father of the show” into vivid, glorious English.
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The Wife of Bath: A Biography by Marion Turner
A love letter to Chaucer’s favourite pilgrim, the fabulous woman at the heart of The Canterbury Tales.
A Barrister for the Earth by Monica Feria-Tinta
Change needs everyone, from protesters rebelling to CEOs and politicians reversing policy. And it needs lawyers like Feria-Tinta to stand up and fight for the rights of the voiceless.
