Friends of Fridah: Hannah-Rose Yee.

 Today I am showing unusual restraint in my intro for one of my favourite people; Hannah-Rose Yee. We met more than a decade ago as young and keen creatives on our way to document a fashion show at the (Sydney)Opera House. She's since travelled the world writing for all the mags and interviewed all the celebs, is the current Vogue Australia features editor and humbly accepted my request to give us her OOO/holiday reading recommendations. 

Please enjoy. And keep me posted on what you do pick up to read this summer, I'm always a few books behind. xRachel 

 

Out of Office; Reading

by Hannah-Rose Yee

I approach out of office reading with the respect it demands. There’s nothing worse than being on holiday somewhere – “arse up in the sun,” as my friend Ash puts it – with a bad book. Truly, nothing worse. I have been known to take four, five, even six books with me on holiday for this exact reason. You never want to be in a situation where you have to persevere through a bad book because an alternative is unavailable.
Here, I’ve pulled together a list of what I want to be reading this summer, arse up in the sun. A caveat: reading is deeply personal and I will not be offended at all if none of these books sound appealing to you! Hopefully there is something here for everyone and if not, it gets you thinking about your own out of office reading list.

 

1. An emotionally devastating saga

The ideal summer reading is a big book that opens its arms and draws you in immediately. Something all-encompassing and overwhelming, like stepping into a whole new world. Recently, the best thing I’ve read that fits that bill is Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst, who is one of my favourite authors, and when I finished reading this book I burst into tears. Our Evenings is about the choices and decisions that we make and how they ripple out over the course of our lives. Hollinghurst chooses a young, half Burmese man as his subject and ‘80s England as his setting, following this man through the scholarship that changes his life, throwing him into the path of a dazzling, wealthy family, the moment that unlocks an understanding about his sexuality, his career as an actor and his devotion to art for art’s sake. It’s so mesmerising and so devastating, with Hollinghurst’s ability to make you fall in love with people because of – not in spite of – their flaws. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.

And a book I haven’t read but I can’t wait to this summer: Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner. What if one of my favourite genres – espionage! – was placed in the hands of one of our great living writers? Creation Lake is the story of a 34-year-old American agent – ruthless, bold, and beautiful – undercover in a group of radical eco-activists in the French countryside. Seduction and counter-seduction ensues. Yes please.

 

2. Big, fat non fiction

A weird thing about me is that I love to read a juicy work of non fiction at the beach. This may not be your thing so please ignore these selections if so! I don’t know why it is, but I find non fiction so engrossing and satisfying as a summer read. I feel like I’ve learned something, which is a great achievement for a summer break.

A perfect book in this category is Didion & Babitz by Lili Anolik, about the frenemy-ship between Joan Didion and Eve Babitz. If you’ve read Hollywood’s Eve by Anolik, a journalist at Vanity Fair, you know her writing style is molto-drama, maxo-colour, like you’re sitting at a bar three martinis deep hearing your most entertaining friend drop the juiciest piece of gossip about some people you are a little bit jealous of. This book is exactly that. For fans of everyone’s writer crushes Joan Didion and Eve Babitz, of course, but also fans of ‘60s and ‘70s Hollywood.

For something a little different, my guy friends have all been recommending the Northern Ireland social history Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe. (What is it with guys and Northern Ireland?) Anyway, like Anolik, Radden Keefe is a journalist, which makes his non fiction writing style leap off the page. This book plots a murder mystery against the backdrop of the Troubles, and is written like a page-turning thriller. I’ve got my copy ready for a holiday in January.

 

 3. Whenever someone asks me what to read next, if nothing specific comes to mind instantly I always ask what television show they’ve loved recently. Because, more often than not, those shows are based on fantastic books – many of them, the first in a longrunning series – which opens up a whole new world of reading.

Two recent examples are Rivals by Jilly Cooper, which was the basis of the recent shag-tastic Disney+ show of the same name, but is actually the second book in the iconic, big-shouldered and even-bigger-haired Rutshire Chronicles from the ‘80s, about polo players and local MPs having lots of affairs in the Cotswolds. I recommend starting at the beginning with Riders, which will be knew to you if you’ve only seen the television show, and just inhaling the lot from there, arse up on a beach with your lover, as Jilly would want. Also, don’t buy the television show tie-in, buy the original paperbacks with the hilariously OTT covers. A joy to behold.

And then there’s the Slow Horses books by Mick Herron, which has inspired the now four seasons long series on AppleTV+ about the MI5 rejects who somehow always manage to find themselves in the middle of a national conspiracy and, despite multiple cock ups, save the day. If you’re a spy novel lover, like I am, these books are just heaven. The television show is wonderful but the books have their own unique comedic flavour and flesh out the characters more. I think there’s about eight of them now, so start at the very beginning and enjoy.

 

                                                                                                                                      

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