Read This: Books under the Radar is a weekly post written by a guest author – often a friend of mine, someone I’ve met on my writerly travels, or an author I admire – who recommends three books they think deserve more recognition. If you’re interested in buying any of the books, please click on the covers and give these hidden gems some love. You can see the full list of books which have been selected, as well as the author’s latest book on Bookshop.org, where you can have a browse and buy any that take your fancy. Happy reading!

Read This: Alice Peterson

Alice Peterson’s novel, The Saturday Place was selected as the Big Book Club read for Winchester Books Festival in April 2024, and I had the great pleasure of hosting the event where people who had read the book gathered to discuss it with Alice. There were so many things to discuss and Alice was delightful. Keep an eye out on the festival’s website for who we’ve picked for next year’s Big Book Club read. (I’m already excited.) And I’m so pleased that Alice agreed to select three under-read books for Read This. Here’s what she has to say about herself:

I was always ‘Alice the tennis player’. Aged 18, and about to sign a tennis scholarship to America, I experienced pain in my right hand, which developed into severe rheumatoid arthritis – a condition which is incurable. In my early 20s, a friend encouraged me to write my story, hoping it could help me to grieve the loss of my old life. My first book is a memoir about my tennis days and overcoming a harrowing, relentless illness by rebuilding my life as an author. My novels are infused with adversity, love, support, community and friendship. My most recent, The Saturday Place touches on volunteering and homelessness, and how love can heal the most broken of people. Alongside my writing, I am a psychotherapist and counsellor.   
Here are Jane’s recommendations:

Once in a House on Fire by Andrea Ashworth

I recall reading this in the late 90s. It was a truly astonishing story about a young girl, who lost her dad aged 5, and was then subjected to the most horrific abuse, fear, poverty and violence at the hands of her stepfather. I can remember feeling so involved, screaming at the mother to escape, to protect both herself, and her daughter and for this horror to end. What struck me was how compelling this book was. I felt I was living in the author’s shoes. I was with her, when she was curled up in the corner of her bedroom, writing, danger close behind her door. I was with her as she grew up and became this incredible, brave, intelligent and resourceful woman who somehow, against all the odds, left home and became an Oxford graduate. Writing, poetry, and learning became her refuge. This story, while desperately sad, was also uplifting, and it was one of the first books that inspired me to write my own personal story. 

Little Big Man by Katy Regan

This is just one of those books I read and couldn’t stop thinking about long after I finished the last page. Ten-year-old Zac, who wants to meet the dad he has never met, and make his mum happy, is one of those characters I completely fell in love with. As I was reading this story, I could see it was close to Katy’s heart – honesty, love, compassion, humour, being a mum and wanting the best for your child – was invested into each chapter. For me it’s a real coming of age story, about growing up

and grieving for the life we never had, but then hoping for second chances. Katy’s book is full of heart and soul. It’s a hidden gem. Her writing definitely deserves more readers.  

The Adventures of Uncle Lubin by W. Heath Robinson

I love this story for two reasons. The first, most important one, is my granny used to read it to me, and to all her twenty grandchildren, so while it’s not a children’s classic, it is well known and loved in our family. I can see myself now, sitting on her lap, on her wicker chair in her conservatory, and can hear her animated voice as she tells me about Uncle Lupin, who lost his beloved nephew, Peter. While Uncle Lupin was dozing, a fierce bad bird whisked a screaming, frightened Peter away, and flew him to the moon. The illustrations are funny. There is something comic about Uncle Lupin’s floppy hat and striped baggy stockings – he’s no picture book! But the second reason I love this book is what shines through is Uncle Lubin’s fierce love towards Peter. Whether he has to fight sea-serpents or melt ice-bergs, he will get his nephew back. It’s full of drama, full of the absurd, but it brought my imaginative alive, and kept me wanting Granny to turn the page.  

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It’s lovely to have a children’s book selected for the first time, and definitely one that sounds like it deserves more readers; I didn’t realise that Heath Robinson was a writer as well as a brilliant cartoonist. Any of these three that catch your eye? And if you’d like to be told about future Read This recommendations, you can follow me on Instagram, or subscribe to my newsletter.

More Read This: Books Under the Radar

Lou Morrish author of Women of War
Francesca Ramsay author of Pinch Me
Sarah Leipciger author of Moon Road
Tim Chapman university librarian
Juliet West author of The Faithful
Lindsay Hunter author of Hot Springs Drive
Gina Chung author of Sea Change
Susmita Bhattacharya author of Table Manners
Vanessa Harbour author of Safe
Freya North author of The Unfinished Business of Eadie Browne
Judith Heneghan author of Birdeye
Clare Mackintosh author of I Promise it won’t always Hurt like This
Barney Norris author of Undercurrent
Jo Leevers author of The Last Time I saw You
Alice Winn author of In Memmoriam
Anna Mazzola author of The House of Secrets