I’ve been struggling to finish novels this year – and then I decided to give John Le Carré another chance

I had always found Le Carré’s novels to be impenetrable, grey, difficult to follow and boring. I decided they weren’t for me and I never tried again – until now, writes Katy Brand

Author of The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (AP)

The presents have all been bought, wrapped, unwrapped, played with and possibly broken. The last helpings of leftovers are making their way into the final sandwiches, and thence to the bin. The new year glimmers on the horizon, peeping and glinting, ready to break. But not yet…

Here we are in “Betwixtmas”, the limbo-land between Christmas and New Year, twiddling our thumbs, as ever. Except that this year, our thumbs have been twiddled into near shavings. What can sometimes be a pleasant period of aimless drifting is now simply the norm, pandemic aside, of course.

As we wait for the vaccine to take effect, perhaps we need distraction of a more robust sort. And having drained Netflix, mopped up BBC iPlayer archives, and rewatched all my favourite 1980s romcoms AGAIN, my brain is crying out for a different nourishment. It wants a good book.