Books like Arthur & George — picked by fans

This is one novel that I can truly say kept me up all night until I’d finished all 548 pages, despite  a headache and sore eyes!

A thrilling tale of deception, betrayal, and ingenuity by one of my all-time favourite writers, Fingersmith tells the story of two women from very different social classes. One is a young thief, the other from an aristocratic family, a secretary to her corrupt uncle.

In the course of the novel, their intertwined history is exposed, along with the conspiracy to steal Maud’s fortune. There are vivid, Dickensian scenes of Victorian London and Gothic elements to the romance, but I especially admire the multiple,  breathtaking plot twists. I wish I’d written it!

Another novel with a great opening line, "Sometimes in the night he dreamed about the dead," The Master is a subtle and complex portrayal of the Victorian writer Henry James.

It begins at a moment in his career when, although lauded as a novelist, he has failed as a dramatist. He retreats from public life, buying a house in Rye, Sussex, where he lives alone, haunted by people from his past and preoccupied with the details of the Oscar Wilde case.

I loved the exploration of creativity and the consequences of dedicating yourself to the creative life, especially in terms of the uncomfortable relationship between artistic integrity and public response. This is a virtuoso depiction of social and psychological repression, the pain of unacknowledged sexuality, and the cost of art.

From the brilliant first line to the ambiguous ending, this novel kept me gripped throughout its 800 + pages.

It plumbs the secret depths of Victorian Society, uncovering pornography, mental illness, prostitution, the evils of marriage and inheritance in gloriously rich prose.

It explores the lives of two very different women, Agnes and Sugar who are both dependent on Wiliam Rachkam, reluctant heir to a perfume business. Agnes represents the Victorian ideal of naive femininity, whereas Sugar is a prostitute who is writing an erotic revenge novel in which all clients are gruesomely murdered.

This novel has a surreal and baroque quality, which I loved.

This is simply the finest short introduction to the life and works of Conan Doyle that you could hope for–written by a doyen of critics who once ran the Books pages of the Washington Post.

Dirda’s erudition and lightness of touch combine to make this a book that is succinct, illuminating, and always entertaining.

Insights into Conan Doyle's personal life were somewhat stalled in the early 21st century—until the publication of this illuminating biography, which incorporated new material relating to the short, sad life of the author’s first wife, Louise, and their two children.

Louise died of tuberculosis in 1906, allowing Doyle to marry the much younger Jean, who bore him three further children. This is a surprisingly moving tale.

Most readers will be familiar with the basic Sherlock Holmes stories. But they may not know Conan Doyle’s ‘non-canonical’ work. This is a strange didactic novel that the author wrote at the start of his career–before Holmes was even conceived.

It addresses some of his wider concerns–relating in particular to religion, medicine, empire and the workings of society. The novel had an interesting gestation as it was lost after Conan Doyle sent it to his publisher. He then tried to recreate it from his recollections of what he had originally written but did nothing with the revised manuscript until it was put up for auction 120 years later and subsequently published by the British Library in 2011.

The result is a revealing piece of Conan Doyle juvenilia.  

This is a riveting overview of Conan Doyle's life and times. Strongly grounded in the man himself's writings, it deals comprehensively with various topics that occupied him throughout his life, including sport, medicine, science, law and order, army and empire, and spirit. It is full of scholarship and endless fascination.

A gripping portrayal of the "house for fallen women" funded by Angela Burdett-Coutts and managed by Charles Dickens in Victorian London.

Urania cottage offers refuge for prostitutes, petty thieves and the destitute who end up there for various reasons and respond to it in different ways.

I loved the way Halls skilfully depicts women from different classes. Josephine is a working-class woman who comes straight from prison, whereas Angela Burdett-Coutts is the richest woman in London, but her wealth cages her in a different way. I found this novel beautifully observed, unsentimental, and absorbing.

I first discovered this wonderful story decades ago in my youth, when I read everything I could find with a horse in it. Many years later, following a catastrophic riding accident, I found this book tucked away on a backroom shelf. I immediately recalled that Judy’s struggle was precisely the one I was then facing, and I spent the afternoon re-reading her story. There may be something enduringly healing about the stories we love in childhood, because the power of Anderson’s story helped me recover my confidence with my horses. An added bonus of Anderson’s books are his masterful sketches which capture the essence of the horses at the center of his stories, and Afraid to Ride includes some of my all-time favorites.

Prior to reading this book, I had no idea how important saddle fit and tack were for the horse or how much damage they could do.

This book was the reason I decided to learn how to become a saddle fit evaluator and took the author's certification course. He is a huge inspiration and has changed my life and my horses' lives for the better.