The Importance of Being Earnest - Oscar Wilde
Brimming with the counter-intuitive wit with which Wilde's name is synonymous, this play follows two young men, Algernon and Jack, as they come to grips with one another's 'Bunburying' - deceits involving invented identities and escaping unwanted socialising - which spiral out of control.
Culminating in a hauntingly brilliant scene with a cast of characters dripping with satire, an unpublished manuscript and an unforgettable handbag, The Importance of Being Earnest lambasts the Victorian yearning for morality and meaning.
The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
Dorian is a good-natured young man until he falls in with the immoral Sir Henry and discovers the power of his exceptional beauty.
As he gradually sinks deep into a frivolous, glamorous world of selfish luxury, he apparently remains physically unchanged by the stresses of his corrupt and decadent lifestyle and untouched by age.
Stoner - John Williams
William Stoner enters the University of Missouri at nineteen to study agriculture. A seminar on English literature changes his life, and he never returns to work on his father's farm. Stoner becomes a teacher. He marries the wrong woman. His life is quiet, and after his death, his colleagues remember him rarely.
Yet with truthfulness, compassion and intense power, this novel uncovers a story of universal value - of the conflicts, defeats and victories of the human race that pass unrecorded by history - and in doing so reclaims the significance of an individual life.
When God Was a Rabbit - Sarah Winman
This novel is a mesmerising portrait of childhood and growing up; the loss of innocence, eccentricity and familial bonds. Stripped down to its bare bones, it's the story of the unbreakable bond between a brother and sister.
The Salt Path - Raynor Winn (Non-fiction)
In one devastating week, Raynor and her husband Moth lost their home of 20 years, just as a terminal diagnosis took away their future together. With nowhere else to go, they decided to walk the South West Coast Path: a 630-mile sea-swept trail from Somerset to Dorset, via Devon and Cornwall.
This ancient, wind-battered landscape strips them of every comfort they had previously known. With very little money for food or shelter, Raynor and Moth carry everything on their backs and wild camp on beaches and clifftops.