I LOVE hot weather. You’ll find me basking like a lizard at any opportunity I get, ideally with a gin and tonic and a book. This fantasy scenario happens a lot less frequently than I’d like, but in the event that you manage to secure yourself some summer reading time, here are some of my favourite hot weather reads.

The Tyranny of Lost Things

I really enjoyed this book by Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett set during a sultry London summer. It’s brilliantly atmospheric - she absolutely nails the sticky restlessness of a city summer in your twenties. Zadie Smith’s NW is also excellent at bringing summer in London to life.

Under the Volcano

Malcolm Lowry’s bonkers masterpiece is a surreal book about the final days of an alcoholic diplomat in Mexico and much more entertaining than that sounds. It’s stifling and mythic and many layered - I know, because I was fool enough to write my Masters dissertation on it. There’s a brilliant Backlisted podcast about it featuring poet Ian McMillan that is well worth listening to if you’re already a fan. One for a sweltering afternoon, perhaps with a glass of mezcal - though, given the infernal effects on Firmin, I’d stop at one.

Cape May

I gobbled up Chip Cheek’s Cape May, which is comprised of a dash of Gatsby-flavoured glamour, a seasoning of sun and sea, a slosh of gin, a squeeze of sex, and a twist of sadness. Crisply written and completely transporting, it’s begging for an elegant veranda with a sea view on which to enjoy it, with a short dress and a long drink.

Ace of Bass

The opening poem in Fiona Benson’s absolutely excellent Vertigo & Ghost is the frenetically sticky ‘Ace of Bass’ (certainly the sound of a few of my formative summers). Hear Fiona read it here, and wonder whether anyone - even actual Ace of Bass - has ever captured the hormone-addled frenzy of schoolgirls in summer better.

The Girls

Emma Cline’s scorching debut is a dark pleasure for a hot night. She evokes a gritty, strip-lit 60s with the nostalgic haze torn away. The Girls is scarily perceptive on girlhood, especially the need to belong and the dark places this can lead to.

Let’s hope we have a few more scorching days and warm evenings ahead of us. I’d love to know your top heatwave reads, and I might revisit this subject again as I have a few other sizzling suggestions that didn’t make this list.

Please note that this website contains affiliate links and I may earn a small commission (at no cost to you) when you buy through these links.