20/07/2026
The National Year of Reading is in full swing in the UK, and our teachers and staff have been taking that mandate very seriously!
To inspire your summer reading list, here is Part 1 of our “Highgrove Reads” series where we share great book recommendations from the Highgrove Education team.
Tell us what you’re looking forward to reading this summer in the comments!
Ballistic, the 5th Luke Carlton spy thriller from Frank Gardner, is due out at the end of July. That is Frank Gardner, BBC Security Correspondent. I read a lot but nothing as quickly as these books, they are unputdownable! - Mike Williams, EAL and Global Citizenship Teacher
I’m planning to re-read ‘The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks’ because it’s been 10 years since I read it last; HeLa cells brought so much to medicine but the important story they tell shouldn’t be forgotten. Plus, ‘Land’ by Maggie O’Farrell as this has been on 13 of the summer reading lists I’ve looked at recently! - Emma Kemp-Gee, Biology Teacher
I’m currently reading The Dirtiest Race in History - about doping in athletics and in particular the Johnson vs Lewis 1988 Olympic 100m final- Rosie, Head of Admissions
I’m looking forward to reading A Glastonbury Romance by John Cowper Powys - not a ‘romance’ as we might understand it today as in a love story, but used in the sense of an epic, legendary and heightened story. -Sarah Ryan, English Language & Literature and Latin Teacher
I am planning to re-read Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. The film was not as good, so I need to read the book again as I loved it.” Lorna Hope, Art & Design Teacher
I’m currently reading ‘An Odyssey: A Father, a Son and an Epic’ by Daniel Mendelsohn - a memoir by a lecturer in classics about his father who followed his university course on the Odyssey at the age of 81. Building up to read the actual Odyssey over the summer! -Lesley Paramo, Spanish and French Teacher