Tilda Swinton’s holiday reading list is as eclectic as the film roles she chooses. Here are her recommended reads:
Auntie Mame By Patrick Dennis
“Mame: Who did you ever dream of being adopted by?”
A Time Of Gifts By Patrick Leigh Fermor
“For anybody who has ever fantasised about walking across Europe with a backpack. Written by a great writer and a proper hero amongst men.”
Love In A Cold Climate By Nancy Mitford
“Lady Montdore is one of the greatest creations in English literature; Uncle Matthew, another; Cedric, yet another. It’s the dottiness and passions of the English aristocracy pretty much nailed in one.”
Light Years By James Salter
“An urbane American marriage seen from above — a kind of exquisite horror story of the deathly chic of people having all their bases covered and somehow missing the point all the same. Very, very beautiful. Very, very sad.”
Great Expectations By Charles Dickens
“Faces you will never forget, and a lesson to treasure all your life: Be prepared to be surprised, [and] cherish life as it finds you. And love Joe Gargery with all your heart.”
Owning Your Own Shadow By Robert A. Johnson
“A tiny, precious book on the balancing wisdom of the psyche. Hooray for that dark stuff!”
The Child, The Family, And The Outside World By D.W. Winnicott
“The book to have by you when becoming a parent. And ever after.”
The Best of Wodehouse By P.G. Wodehouse
“Sentences to eat with a spoon, and funny like nothing else on Earth.”
The Collected Poems Of Frank O’Hara By Frank O’Hara
“Joy and life, and more life and more joy, and street corners, and Coca-Cola, and love.”
Modern Nature By Derek Jarman
“Joy and life, and more life and more joy, and making a garden out of stones, and making films, and love.”
The Many Days: Selected Poems Of Norman MacCaig By Norman MacCaig
“Scotland’s preeminent poet of both the mountain and the capital’s pavement. Doubleness is a Scottish art: Passion and Calvinism; the west and the east; the highlands and the lowlands. MacCaig embraces this split with true affection and verve.”
As found on Refinery29.com