Ali Millar on her best books of the year, why she can’t get into Jane Austen and being inspired by Rachel Cusk.
The first book I remember reading:
I learnt to read very young, so I don’t remember reading specific books until I was about five. But I do remember my mother reading Jane Eyre to me and the vividness of the red room, the fear Jane felt, all of it was so visceral. I’ve wanted to recapture that sensation ever since. I think it might be why I write.
A book I recommend to everyone:
I become horribly evangelical about books I love. In terms of consistent recommendations, it’s probably a tie between Alexander Trocchi’s Young Adam and Jesse Ball’s The Divers’ Game. They both reconfigured, not just how I think, but how I think about prose and what it can do.
The best books I have read in the last year:
Lucus Rijneveld’s My Heavenly Favourite. I think Rijneveld’s a really special writer. You see the real greats aging and dying and wonder who’s coming through the ranks to replace them – the answer is Rijneveld. He’s fearless.
Keiran Goddard’s I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning. Keiran was a poet before he was a novelist, and line for line, I See Buildings is one of the most beautiful books I’ve read recently.
Sarah Hall’s How to Paint a Dead Man. The level of attention that Hall pays on a granular level is incredible, this is a book that you smell, see, feel.
A book I didn’t finish:
I’ve tried and tried to get into Jane Austen, but I just can’t. I’m not a big fan of dialogue, so that might explain it. Maybe I’m just strange.
An author that has inspired me:
Rob Doyle. I seethe every time I read something he’s written because I want to have written it. I see it more as goading than inspiration maybe, his overall excellence is a provocation to try harder, go further. Rachel Cusk has a similar effect, she writes with such clarity and deceptive simplicity, it’s emboldening.
My favourite place to read:
A rainy afternoon in Soho, tucked away through the back in Dean Street Town House, next to their fire on a big comfy chair. I like it because I can pretend to be reading but really just eavesdrop on everyone’s conversation. There or Tighnabruaich on the west coast, sitting on a window seat overlooking Bute, gannets diving in the distance. 
Ali Millar is an author and journalist. Born in Edinburgh and raised in the Scottish Borders, she now lives in London. Her debut, THE LAST DAYS: a memoir of faith, desire and freedom was a Guardian Book of the Year, a Bookseller Editor’s Choice and a Scotsman One to Watch. Ava Anna Ada (White Rabbit) can be bought here.
Read more of The Good Books here.
Subscribe to read the latest issue of Scottish Field.
Author
TAGS
FOLLOW US
