Books I’d rescue: John Harvey

You discover a fire in the house. You have time to evacuate all your loved ones safely, grab some vital possessions, and as many books as you can carry in your hands from your beloved collection. Which books do you choose?

Rushing towards us with an armful of books is John Harvey – Jazz fan, novelist, poet, screenwriter, teacher and CWA Diamond Dagger winner.

John Harvey is most famous for his series of eleven Detective Inspector Charlie Resnick novels and Good Bait is his latest novel. In it he introduces us to a new character – DCI Karen Shields and her overstretched Homicide and Serious Crime team.

We asked John… “which books would you have to rescue?”

Easy! First the books that fired my imagination as a child – Hare Joins The Home Guard by Alison Uttley, The Buffalo Bill Wild West Annual written by Arthur Groom and Great Northern by Arthur Ransome.

Then selected poems by Frank O’Hara, Robert Hass and Lee Harwood.

Next, any one of several books of Joan Mitchell’s paintings. And finally all the early Hemingway and Lawrence I can carry.

What would your choices be? Are any of your favourite books on John’s ‘must-save’ list?

Further reading: Books I’d Rescue: Tom Benn