Catherine Rimmer’s Desert Island Books
Name: Catherine Rimmer
Job role: Foundation and SAS Doctors Administrator – PGME Team
About: I’ve been a member of the PGME Team for over fifteen years now! I love reading, and like to read on my lunch break to take a break from looking at a screen all day. I currently look after the Foundation Doctors and the SAS Doctors to support their educational and continuing development. As part of the team, I also support resident doctor induction and clinical attachments.
Book 1: The Life of Pi by Yann Martel
After a shipwreck, a young boy ends up trapped on a boat with a tiger named Richard Parker—how does he survive this extraordinary journey?
I read this as part of the 6 Book Challenge last year, and found it an absolutely amazing, beautifully written piece of fiction, unlike anything I’d read before. Plus if you were on a desert island, it has quite a few tips for survival!
Book 2: The Wizard of Oz by L Frank Baum
Dorothy finds herself whisked away to a fantastical land after a tornado and seeks a way home, finding friends along the way. This has been a favourite since childhood, and one of my first real experiences of discovering how books can differ from film adaptations! I love the rich nature of the fantastical world of Oz—and can highly recommend the wider Land of Oz novels, where things become even stranger and more fantastical. Perfect for getting lost somewhere you thought you knew!
Book 3: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
A young companion is caught up in a whirlwind relationship with the wealthy older gentleman Maxim de Winter, but soon finds her life overshadowed by the spectre of his first wife, Rebecca, and the mystery of her death. This is one of my favourite books—I first read it as a teenager, and have loved it ever since, even after having written an essay about it! Du Maurier weaves a fantastic mystery, and the titular Rebecca looms large despite her never being seen on page
Book 4: The Bridgerton series by Julia Quinn
In this series, each book follows one of the eight Bridgerton siblings as they embark on romance and marriage in the Regency era—the inspiration for the Netflix series.
I first read the Bridgerton novels while I was at university, and have loved them ever since. There are some significant differences to the better known Netflix series (including the order of the novels, as well as lacking a number of the TB series’ characters), but they’re a great comfort read and I never tire of them! (Although, to be honest, pretty much any of Julia Quinn’s novels are worth having for a desert island!)
Book 5: Her Lost Words by Stephanie Marie Thornton
his novel follows the story of two Marys: Mary Wostollstonecraft and her daughter, Mary Godwin, better known by her married name of Mary Shelley. The younger Mary explores her mother’s diaries and letters even as she herself embarks on a scandalous relationship, and travels to Europe…An utterly gorgeous novel that made me laugh and cry and want to learn more of the real history behind two extraordinary women and writers. A few artistic liberties are taken (thoroughly explained in the Author’s Notes, of course!), but it makes for a wonderful story, clearly based in true history, and giving a glimpse into the difficulties these writers faced as women writing works that defied the ‘proper place’ of a woman in late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century society.
Book 6: The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
Aiden wakes up in Blackheath, a strange prison, where he has to discover who killed Evelyn Hardcastle in order to free himself. In order to do so, he possesses a number of individuals at the party where Evelyn died, but it turns out to be more complicated than he could imagine, as someone doesn’t want him to succeed…A really fascinating mystery novel that goes beyond the mere ‘murder mystery’ with elements of sci-fi, time travel, body-swapping, and a resolution that challenges the mind and morals of the reader. I really enjoyed it.
Luxury item
A comfy chair or hammock so I can be comfortable while reading my books!