James Holland's Top Book Recommendations

Want to know what books James Holland recommends? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of James Holland's favorite book recommendations of all time. At Shortform, we know books. Our book guides are the best in the world. Learn why.

First Light

Geoffrey Wellum

4.6

An account of Boy Wellum, one of the youngest fighter pilots in the Battle of Britain. Enlisting in the RAF weeks before the outbreak of World War II, Geoffrey Wellum found himself fighting the Germans over the English Channel, a Spitfire pilot at just 18 years of age.

Recommended by James Holland and Steve Darlow.

James Holland

Everything changes when you suddenly find yourself in the Battle of Britain. It was incredibly harrowing. I can’t even begin to tell you how difficult it was, physically and mentally, to fly three times a day in those sorts of conditions – knowing that any moment might be your last. [source]

Steve Darlow

He is not a combat hero, an ‘ace’ (someone who has shot down five enemy aircraft), though he was a good pilot. His skill is in taking the reader into the aircraft and giving them the experiences he had. [source]

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History of the Ancient Near East

Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton

4.2

If the history of the Near East has always seemed a little daunting and confusing, this book by one of the best known writers on the subject should show you the light at the end of the tunnel. Beginning c.3000 BC with the advent of the first writing system, Van De Mieroop traces the emergence and development of some of the greatest states and powers, stunning cities and major empires, including th

Recommended by James Holland.

James Holland

Cecil Beaton was my next door neighbour when I was growing up, and was one of the reasons why I got interested in this era in the first place. He died when I was 10 but I remember him very well – not least when one of our bantam cockerels escaped into his garden. We all went round searching for it in his beautiful flower beds, him with a huge straw hat on and a magnificent butterfly net that he was trying to catch it with. Another memory I have of him is Bianca Jagger being photographed in his garden. [source]

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Marking Time (Cazalet Chronicles, #2)

Elizabeth Jane Howard

4.3

The wonderful sequel to The Light Years returns readers to Britain in September, 1939, as war breaks out. Sheltered Louise, now 16, goes from cooking school to London parties. For 14-year-old Polly, the terrors of war cannot forestall the pangs of adolescence. And though Clary's father has been reported missing since Dunkirk, she holds to the belief that he's alive.

Recommended by James Holland.

James Holland

I love the Cazalet books, and Marking Time is part of that series. I also loved the TV adaptation, which only ran for one series but was fabulously filmed and acted. This is the best book in the series. War is coming, and the Cazalet family are plunged into the situation. Like everyone else they have to deal with the start of the war, and the youngest son goes off to fight in Dunkirk. The book is cross generational, so you have the children and the patriarch and matriarch in this lovely old house in Sussex. It is obviously heavily autobiographical. But she is very clever, because the readers get to switch between the different points of view of all the main characters. [source]

One Man's Window

Denis Barnham

4.5

Recommended by James Holland.

James Holland

This book has just been re-released as Malta Spitfire Pilot, but I think One Man’s Window is a better title. I came across this book when I was doing my book on the siege of Malta. Denis Barnham was quite a sensitive fellow, with an artistic temperament. He was a member of the Royal Academy of Arts, in London and a fine artist, and when he went out to Malta he kept a very detailed diary, which some years later he made into a book. Like Geoff Wellum’s book, I like the immediacy of it – the absolute insanity of living and fighting on Malta. [source]

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The Sword of Honour Trilogy

Evelyn Waugh

4.3

This trilogy of novels about World War II, largely based on his own experiences as an army officer, is the crowning achievement of Evelyn Waugh's career. Its central character is Guy Crouchback, head of an ancient but decayed Catholic family, who at first discovers new purpose in the challenge to defend Christian values against Nazi barbarism, but then gradually finds the complexities and crueltie

Recommended by James Holland.

James Holland

I love Evelyn Waugh as a writer. He is probably my favourite novelist. Like Elizabeth Jane Howard’s book, he really takes you there. This book brings that world to life in a wonderful way. He is very good on the eccentricity of it, and the madness of the war. There are so many things that we would take for granted that went out of the window in war time. It was a world without health and safety – a world of survival. [source]