Interviewer

Cal Flyn, Deputy Editor
Five Books deputy editor Cal Flyn is a writer from the Highlands of Scotland.
Her latest book, Islands of Abandonment—about the ecology and psychology of abandoned places—is out now. It has been shortlisted for the 2021 Baillie Gifford Prize, the Wainwright Prize for writing on global conservation, the British Academy Book Prize, and for the title of Scottish Nonfiction Book of the Year.
At Five Books, she interviews on subjects including literary fiction and nonfiction, psychology, nature, environment, and science fiction.
Interviews by Cal Flyn
Historical Novels with Strong Female Leads, recommended by Kate Mosse
Female stories often went unrecorded in history—but that’s not because there weren’t any, explains Kate Mosse, the acclaimed novelist and nonfiction writer. Here, she explores the role of fiction in illuminating historical events when the written record is thin, and recommends five novels with strong female protagonists that have influenced her own work.
The Best Thomas Hardy Books, recommended by Mark Chutter
Thomas Hardy, author of many classic novels including Tess of the d’Ubervilles and Far From the Madding Crowd, is best known for his books that explore the social mores and class divides of rural life in 19th-century England. Here, Mark Chutter—chair of the Thomas Hardy Society—talks us through five key texts by Hardy, and explains why they have stood the test of time.
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1
Our Brains, Our Selves: What a Neurologist’s Patients Taught Him About the Brain
by Masud Husain -
2
Music As Medicine: How We Can Harness Its Therapeutic Power
by Daniel Levitin -
3
Your Life Is Manufactured: How We Make Things, Why It Matters and How We Can Do It Better
by Tim Minshall -
4
The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad: A True Story of Science and Sacrifice in a City under Siege
by Simon Parkin -
5
Vanished: An Unnatural History of Extinction
by Sadiah Qureshi -
6
Ends of the Earth: Journeys to the Polar Regions in Search of Life, the Cosmos, and our Future
by Neil Shubin
The Best Popular Science Books of 2025: The Royal Society Book Prize, recommended by Sandra Knapp
The Best Popular Science Books of 2025: The Royal Society Book Prize, recommended by Sandra Knapp
Every year, the judges for the Royal Society Book Prize search for the most informative and most readable new books on scientific subjects. In 2025, their shortlist of the best popular science books includes a history of extinction in the colonial world, and the heartrending story of the struggle to save the world’s first seed bank during the Siege of Leningrad. We spoke to the botanist Dr Sandra Knapp, chair of the judging panel.
Modern Classics, recommended by James Rebanks
It’s notoriously difficult to recognise great works of literature at the time of publication, but certain books come to the fore as ‘modern classics’: exceptional texts that will stand the test of time. We asked James Rebanks, the Lake District shepherd and celebrated author, to recommend five books that deserve the label.
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1
Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues
by Ross Perlin -
2
Poems from the Edge of Extinction: An Anthology of Poetry in Endangered Languages
ed. Chris McCabe -
3
One & Everything
by Sam Winston -
4
Rare Tongues: The Secret Stories of Hidden Languages
by Lorna Gibb -
5
Babel: An Arcane History
by R. F. Kuang
The best books on Endangered Languages, recommended by Samantha Ellis
The best books on Endangered Languages, recommended by Samantha Ellis
Of the world’s 7000 languages, around half are expected to be extinct by the end of this century. Samantha Ellis’s mother tongue is one of them. We asked her to reflect on what we lose when we lose a way of speaking—culturally, linguistically, emotionally—and to recommend five books about endangered languages.
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1
The Body in the Library
by Agatha Christie -
2
A Morbid Taste for Bones: The First Chronicle of Brother Cadfael
by Ellis Peters -
3
The Maid
by Nita Prose, narrated by Lauren Ambrose -
4
The Way of All Flesh: A Raven & Fisher Mystery
by Ambrose Parry -
5
Dear Little Corpses: A Josephine Tey Mystery
by Nicola Upson
The Best Amateur Detective Novels, recommended by Jess Kidd
The Best Amateur Detective Novels, recommended by Jess Kidd
The ‘everyman’ quality of an amateur sleuths makes for a particularly readable subgenre of mystery book, says Jess Kidd—the author of a new series starring a crime-solving former nun. Here, she recommends five brilliant amateur detective novels with finely calibrated puzzles at their hearts.
The best books on Long-Distance Journeys, recommended by Louis Hall
Travelling over long distances offers extraordinary opportunity for reflection and re-orientation, explains Louis Hall—the equestrian travel writer whose new book, In Green, describes his trek through the Alps and Pyrenees. Here, he recommends five classic travel books about long journeys that have stood the test of time.
The Best John le Carré Books, selected by Nick Harkaway
John le Carré—often credited as the best spy novelist of all time—wrote 26 books over the course of his career. We asked Nick Harkaway, his son and the author of Karla’s Choice (the best spy thriller of 2024, according to our interview with spy book expert Shane Whaley), to select the five best John le Carré novels: from the Cold War espionage stories that made his name to more contemporary thrillers set in a world of international crime syndicates.
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1
All His Spies: The Secret World of Robert Cecil
by Stephen Alford -
2
Augustus The Strong: A Study in Artistic Greatness and Political Fiasco
by Tim Blanning -
3
The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV
by Helen Castor -
4
Henry V: The Astonishing Triumph of England's Greatest Warrior King
by Dan Jones -
5
The Rebel's Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon
by Adam Shatz
The Best Historical Biography: The 2025 Elizabeth Longford Prize, recommended by Roy Foster
The Best Historical Biography: The 2025 Elizabeth Longford Prize, recommended by Roy Foster
A good historical biography should help us redefine and rethink what makes a person historically significant, says Roy Foster, chair of the judging panel of the Elizabeth Longford Prize. He talks us through the brilliant books that made the 2025 shortlist, including the lives of various monarchs who left their mark on European history, a portrait of an early modern spymaster, and a biography of Frantz Fanon, the anti-colonial writer.
The Best Historical Fiction Set in the 18th Century, recommended by Ariel Lawhon
It was the century of the American Revolutionary War and the French Revolution. In the Scottish Highlands, there were multiple rebellions in favour of the deposed Stuart dynasty. Ariel Lawhon, author of The Frozen River, recommends five of her favorite novels set in the 18th century, a tumultuous era that doesn’t always get the shelf space it deserves when it comes to historical fiction.