CULTURE EDITION
July Book Club Charlotte Griffiths shares some gripping reads that have inspired big-screen adaptations
EMILY HENRY You and Me on Vacation
Summer is the perfect season to pick up an Emily Henry novel. If you’ve managed to resist her brightly coloured covers and multiple-award-winning romances until now, just give in – you won’t regret it. Start your adventure through Henry’s back catalogue here, with best friends and total opposites Poppy and Alex as they take another of their firmly platonic trips. They’ve holidayed together every summer for ten years, but two years ago something happened on their annual adventure. They haven’t spoken since, but Poppy’s realised the last time she was happy was with Alex, so she’s determined to reconnect with him – even if it means staying in a flea- bitten Palm Springs motel with no air con in the lead-up to Alex’s brother’s wedding. Henry leads us through different time periods, slowly revealing glimpses of their past relationship and other travels, piecing together the puzzle in deliciously satisfying slow motion. Will they ever realise that ‘opposites attract’ is a cliché for a reason? Once you’ve finished this novel, not only are there many more Henry delights to experience – there’s also a Netflix adaptation currently in post-production starring Emily Bader and Tom Blyth. Henry confessed to being an ‘anxious wreck’ while waiting to find out who would be cast in the lead roles, but ‘could not feel more confident’ about the choices. Named after the US version of the book, People We Meet on Vacation should air later this year.
TRIP TEASE You and Me on Vacation is a romantic comedy that’s as much about longing as it is about location
The Salt Path RAYNOR WINN
funny, deeply life-affirming and stacked with beautiful descriptions of the natural world. With no money, no shelter and no plan besides ‘just keep walking’, homeless Raynor and Moth slowly reconnect with nature and each other through the curiously redemptive power of long-distance walking – finding the strength that comes with discipline, the hope that can spring up in the harshest of environments and the fact that home can be wherever you want it to be. Whichever way you choose to engage with Raynor and Moth’s story, the stunning scenery and beautiful writing will see you reaching for your rucksack and booking a train to the south-west. See you at Paddington station…
This summer’s must-see movie is director Marianne Elliott and screenwriter Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s adaptation of Raynor Winn’s smash-hit and award-winning 2018 memoir. Now a feature film, it stars Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs as Raynor and her husband Moth as they walk the 630-mile coastal path stretching from Somerset to Dorset through the landscapes of Devon and Cornwall. The book and film tell the story of the couple’s lived experience of tackling this challenging hike after losing their home and income in one fell swoop, followed by Moth receiving a life-limiting medical diagnosis, all of which sounds quite bleak. It is on the face of it, but this book is also laugh-out-loud
28 JULY 2025 CAMBSEDITION.CO.UK
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