Matilda's Reading List

My 2026 hobby is going to be reading Matilda's reading list - will you join me? You know! In Chapter One of Matilda by Roald Dahl, Mrs Phelps the librarian helps Matilda with what to read next, after she has finished all the books in the Children's section. The Secret Garden was her favourite of all. Mrs Phelps suggests Great Expectations and then over the next six months:

• Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

• Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

• Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

• Gone to Earth by Mary Webb

• Kim by Rudyard Kipling

• The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells

• The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

• The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

• The Good Companions by J. B. Priestley

• Brighton Rock by Graham Greene

• Animal Farm by George Orwell

A good list! Still the list Mrs Phelps would recommend in 2026? (Matilda was, of course, first published in 1988.) Probably books I should have read? Let's see how I fare at the start...

1. The Secret Garden - definitely read this in my own childhood. And seen the 1990s TV one of course

2. Great Expectations - seen the TV (formative - the reason I chose Greek GCSE because of Pip reading ancient Greek in a boat, I seem to remember...)

3. Nicholas Nickleby - seen the TV

4. Oliver Twist - watched the musical!

5. Jane Eyre - was supposed to read in Year 8 at school, stopped before she gets to school

6. Pride and Prejudice - READ THIS LOVED IT! Also obviously watched telly and film

7. Tess of the d'Urbervilles - never read

8. Gone to Earth - never heard of this: exciting

9. Kim - have not read at all

10. The Invisible Man - have not read

11. The Old Man and the Sea - never read any Hemingway actually

12. The Sound and the Fury - nope

13. The Grapes of Wrath - YES I HAVE READ THIS, IT MADE ME WANT TO BECOME AN AUTHOR!

14. The Good Companions - not at all

15. Brighton Rock - remember being scared at page one

16. Animal Farm - read many, many times

Soooo... that's a whopping three out of sixteen... I can do better than that, and I would love you to join me. Shall we start with Great Expectations to read in January?