Lucy Caldwell on the Joys of Reading Ulysses and Women Who Run With the Wolves

Key facts

• Caldwell's earliest reading memory is the Storyteller series with cassette tapes, including a Japanese folktale The Goblin Rat.
• Her favourite book growing up was Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising series, which she rereads every midwinter.
• The book that made her want to be a writer was Jennifer Johnston's How Many Miles to Babylon?
• She first read Ulysses as an undergraduate with anxiety about references, later enjoyed a footnote-free edition.
• She rereads Clarissa Pinkola Estés' Women Who Run With the Wolves in her 20s, 30s, and 40s.
• She could never reread Rosamond Lehmann's The Echoing Grove due to a rat bludgeoning scene.
• She discovered DH Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover in her 40s, finding the longing and rhythms impactful.
• She recently finished Helen Bain's The Daffodil Days and is reading Courttia Newland's The Art of Opposition.