Rick O’Shea recommends escapist tales that even a pessimistic grump can enjoy

When the world around you overwhelmingly feels like bad dystopian fiction, what better way to leave it for a while than to enter a world of genuine escape?

Clockwise from left: Peter Sellers in Being There, Rónán Hession, Leonard Rossiter in The Fall And Rise of Reginald Perrin and Sara Baume

Rick O'Shea

I’ve noticed a pattern to this column in recent weeks. I have featured books about the end of the world, serial killers, the climate emergency and the future forced mass migration of the human race. So, before you discover exactly the sort of misanthropic pessimistic curmudgeon I am, I’d better throw in some light to ­counterbalance the darkness.

During the early part of Covid, I was frequently asked by people to recommend books that would distract them from the world they were dealing with every day. Anything that might act as an antidote to the news alerts, the worry, the hardships and isolation, the screaming existential clamour of all of our social media feeds.

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