Sitting in the sunshine, with a well-thumbed novel in my hands, I feel relaxed; whether it’s the latest page-turner thriller, a memoir that resonates with our life, or a poetry collection with perfect imagery and emotion, many of us love to escape in the pages of an engaging read.

You may well know the joy of reading personally – but there’s lots of research to show why it’s good for us, too. ‘Reading can be a powerful tool for self-discovery and self-understanding,’ says Bijal Shah, author of (Little, Brown, £16.99). ‘Both fiction and non-fiction allow us to empathise with the people we read about, and experience a sense of connection, or identification with their struggles or challenges. We almost re-live our own stories, connecting us with emotions we have neglected or numbed in the past, as