Reading Matters (week 050) 09 December 2025

Richard Sutton, global health and performance expert – he has worked with five former world No.1 tennis players, as well as Novak Djokovic – and is the author of  three books. Shift Happens (Macmillan) his fourth, is intensely readable and teaches us how to breathe, re-set our minds and keep moving.

Is what he writes attainable for you and for me? Yes, actually –  because he sets us simple yet powerful exercises, for both our bodies and our minds. Get this!

Madam & Eve by Stephen Francis and Rico, have been part of our lives, seemingly forever. Now Jacana publishers have brought out Madam Impossible in time for the festive season and we’ll all chortle at their antics.

Stephen conceptualised the cartoons when he saw the amusing dynamic between his mother-in-law and her domestic worker; whilst illustrator Rico Schacherl captured Stephen’s conceptions.  Perfect gift.

I’ll be returning to author Heather Morris (The Tattooist of Auschwitz) as I’ve only managed a brief sense of her fifth book, The Wish (Zaffre/Bonnier) in this show. For now… you’ll love it.

Reading Matters with Sue Grant-Marshall