Thank you for you suggestions, duly noted.
I picked one up in Tescos for a few quid which was a Sunday Times best seller. The whistleblower by Tess somebody...
very poor
yesterday I popped into the Oxfam shop in Thirsk and picked up a copy of Madame Bovary and The Remains of the Day.
Im doing Maam Bovary first ( so to speak )

Sheer brilliance, thanks for the tip Grabec

Well, I'm glad you like it, Dugout. I got some good ideas from that thread too.

The reason it was on my mind was that every now and then Waterstone bring out lovely (and reasonably priced) hard back copies of a small selection of their books, and I got the bairn a beautiful Mme Bovary for Christmas.

Well it has certainly made me think very hard to an almost critical analysis of how I view certain things and how others might be feeling. An astonishing piece of work so far!

Any other little gems?

I'll have to have a think.
Albert Camus is another of my favourites. 'The Plague'; 'The Outsider' and others.