25/09/2026
Look who dropped by! - Amelia Coburn took time out between soundchecks and parmo scoffing for her recent gig at The Globe to choose a shelf of personally recommended reads - here's what's in her stack and why she chose it
The Offing - - Benjamin Myers
A slight curveball choice because I haven't actually read this one yet! but I loved The Gallows Pole and wanted to champion a fellow North Easterner. It's set in my favourite place, Robin Hood's Bay, so I had to buy a copy from Drake's for my ever growing TBR.
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
My second album is themed around monsters, and this is the OG monster novel, When I first read it, I expected pure horror and I was surprised by how sad and deeply human it is. Everyone should read it at least once.
Hag - various
Hag is a collection of dark and strange British folktales, retold by female writers through a feminist lens. Folklore is one of my favourite places to get song ideas from, so this book was a goldmine of inspiration. I loved all the stories, but my favourite was The Panther's Tale.
The Lamb - Lucy Rose
I read this recently and it floored me. A cannibalistic folk horror tale set in Cumbria, it is beautiful, tender, visceral and gruesome all at once, which is basically all I want from a book. I think the story and its characters will stick with me for years.
The Master and Margarita
The devil, a talking cat, magic.... what's not to love? I read this while making my first album and it properly got into my head. I started having recurring fever dreams about it, and some of that weirdness eventually surfaced in my song See Saw. I've never read anything else quite like it, before or since.
East of Eden - John Steinbeck
As a songwriter, I'm fascintated by the idea of good and evil and whether we are born, made or choose to be either. East of Eden explore all of that through an epic family saga and, despite its length, I never wanted the story to end. Steinbeck is so good at writing believable characters and dialogue that you almost forget you're reading a work of fiction.
Tender is the Flesh - Agustina Bazterrica
Definitely not a lunchtime read, and somehow my second book about cannibalism on this list. I promise I read normal books as well! Speculative and dystopian horror is probably my favourite genre and this was such a clever take on it. Total stomach-churning - I loved every minute of it!.
Thanks Amelia! Amelia Coburn
