WHAT BOOK would author Joanna Cannon take to a desert island? 

. . . are you reading now?

There are a couple of books on my bedside table. The Covenant Of Water by Abraham Verghese, which is a multi-generational story set in India about a family that carries a curse: in each generation, at least one person dies by drowning.

I’ve never had the privilege to visit India, but the writing is so beautiful and so sensory, it feels as though I have.

The other is The End Of Us by Olivia Kiernan (out in June). Every third book I read seems to be a thriller as it’s one of my favourite genres, and this is a super-dark and twisty story involving a troubled husband, his high-maintenance wife and new neighbours who seem too good to be true.

Just my cup of tea.

Author Joanna Cannon says that she would take Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier to a desert island

. . . would you take to a desert island?

If I was only going to read one book, over and over again for the rest of my life, it would have to be Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.

I love all of du Maurier’s novels — in the nicest possible way, she is such an expert in reader manipulation — but Rebecca is the perfect story by the perfect story-teller, and each time I read it, I find something new, which is definitely something to bear in mind if you only have one book to hand.

Also, sitting underneath a palm tree while wandering the hallways of Manderley sounds pretty idyllic to me, even if I am accompanied by Mrs Danvers.

Joanna says that Little Women first gave her the reading bug

. . . first gave you the reading bug?

I spent many hours of my childhood in the local library and each week I would renew Little Women, because I didn’t quite grasp the fact that there was more than one copy in the world, and I couldn’t bear the thought of it living in someone else’s house. So credit for my insatiable reading habits must go to Louisa M. Alcott (with an honorary mention to anything involving Narnia).

. . . left you cold?

The joys of school and English lessons meant we were forced to read books we might not have necessarily chosen for ourselves. The least enjoyable of these for me was D.H. Lawrence’s Sons And Lovers (to the point where, if I see it on a bookshelf in Waterstones, my brain still does a little shudder).

I feel very bad about this — not least of all because Lawrence was born not very far away from where I live, so we’re kind of neighbours — but also because books read in childhood definitely need a second airing.

I hated Wuthering Heights as a child, fell in love with Heathcliff as a teenager, and saw right through him as an adult. Stories bring us different treasure at different times, and I think that’s one of the truly great things about reading.

A Tidy Ending by Joanna Cannon is out now in paperback, published by Borough Press at £8.99.