You wake up in the middle of the night to the sound of riots happening on your street. People are smashing car windows, breaking into others’ houses. A core group of people with a variety of useful skills and really interesting backgrounds are forming just outside your house and all they need is you to complete their ragtag bunch. Before you leave, you look at your shelf of literary delights. It’s the end of the world as you know it and you’re feeling bookish…
I’m not the sturdiest of people. I’ve spent this weekend being playfully teased by family for having ‘noodle arms’. And I don’t do well against the elements. It took me three attempts to pass the Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award. However, I do like being alive. I’d fight my hardest against anything or anyone that attempted to stop that from happening. With that, I would take SAS Survival Handbook: The Ultimate Guide to Surviving Anywhere by John “Lofty” Wiseman. Bring it on, apocalypse.
Morenike Adebayo – Books Editor
I would take The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins, it has survival tips like getting water from a tree. That’s pretty cool. Also, the books are fairly short so wouldn’t be too heavy to carry around if you needed to escape somewhere.
Grace Winpenny
It would be War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy for me because I’d never finish it so would last me years in an apocalypse. Also, good as toilet paper.
Emy Martyn
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell because it was a great read with interesting, historical moments of brutality and forbidden love. I would also take Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White because I cried the first time I read it.
Abiola Adebayo
I’d take A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin because there’s a huge cast of characters to love and hate in equal measure. It avoids the cliches of the fantasy genre, such as overtly using magic early-on. The plots sizzle with political intrigue and the world created, Westeros, feels surprisingly real. I’d also happily take The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris as Sookie Stackhouse is instantly likeable and an actually intriguing rather than an annoying protagonist. The quiet town of Bon Temps is mundane and grounded, giving a harsher and more believable backdrop for its TV show, True Blood, and there are tons of intimidating but humorous supernaturals!
Angus Quinn, TV Editor
The Complete Poems of John Keats that my mum gave me. It used to belong to my great-grandma when she did English Literature. I’ve read, and had read to me, these poems since I was little. They are the most beautiful poems in the English language – full of beauty and sorrow and I love the rich imagery. My favourite is either Hyperion or Ode on Melancholy. They can never get old to me!
Helena Horton, Lifestyle Editor
All the Terry Pratchett books to cheer me up, given that it’s the apocalypse. And all of Hilary Mantel’s books because she writes a good ol’ read.
David Teasdale
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee – particularly the fluorescent orange copy that my mum accidentally stole from her school library however many years ago! First time I read it, I was 7. Each time I read it it has more to offer as my perspective and ability to really understand what it is about has changed. As an English student and aspiring lawyer, this might be a pretty obvious choice, but after an apocalypse I’m thinking Atticus Finch’s view on morals wouldn’t be a bad thing to take with you.
Kathy Burke, Stage Editor
I’m not sure what book I would take in an apocalypse. But I’m pretty sure there’s a book called The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks which would seem pretty useful.
Alysia Judge
If it was a long, boring sort of apocalypse, (I’m thinking a siege-like situation) where we had to wait it out, I would take the entire A Song of Ice and Fire series, including the next three books in seven parts George R. R. Martin has not yet written (as this is a hypothetical problem, anything’s possible). I feel the way in which everyone dies would be something I could relate to as everyone around me dropped like flies and the food supplies dwindled and we all starved.
If it was a really dystopian-type of apocalypse with constant war and fighting, there would not be much time for reading. So I would take my siddur (Jewish prayer book), which I do use in really rubbish situations. Not because I believe in God but because I believe in the psychological benefits of expressing gratitude (i.e. for finding a water supply), optimism that it will all be ok (i.e. someday the government will manage to cull the zombies and discover a cure for my bitten younger brother), and marking sad times (i.e. the death of a fallen companion by zombie). Plus it’s from my parents and heritage, so it has personal value. I could look at it longingly, maybe have a flashback or two showing my happy family, in happier times, using a yellow filter to show how happy we all were back in the day.
Rebecca Debnath
I would take Ray Mears Outdoor Survival Handbook. We used to have it lying around at home through my childhood and if there was anyway chance of survival I’m sure Ray would get me through.
Rachel Longhurst
In terms of historical fiction, very few authors can compare to Bernard Cornwell, whose depictions of scenes are engaging and realistic, as he vividly takes you back to the Napoleonic Era through the guise of the character Richard Sharpe. Written at the pinnacle of his career, the Sharpe series follows the progression of Sharpe through the ranks of the British army, whilst showing the social struggles that a man of low birth had in mixing with the ‘gentlemanly’ class. A breathtaking and engaging read from first novel to last, when you pick one of his books up, you just don’t want to put it down.
Dave Washington, Editor
I would want the entire collection of Encyclopaedia Britannica because they would make good weapons.
Kyriacos Elia