We might say this every year, but this winter really does feel as though it is going on ad infinitum. This, combined with the small matter of world events, means that you are likely to be yearning for some kind of jetpack button you can press which would transport you elsewhere entirely.
If anyone invents such a thing, let us know. In the meantime, these 14 books will send you on a similar journey. From globe-trotting travel memoirs to sun-soaked fiction and world-building magic realism, here are the finest reads for when you need some pure escapism…
All Jilly Cooper’s novels offer the exact kind of heady escapism we could all do with more of, but perhaps none more so than this 70s romcom. Our fabulously flawed heroine Octavia’s entanglements with both an engaged heartthrob and a Welshman who is very far from her type are funny, sexy and joyous.
Corgi, £9.99
British zoologist Charlotte Walker takes up a fellowship on the tiny island of Tuga, ostensibly to study an endangered species of tortoises, but in reality to solve a secret mystery of her own. Warm, compulsive and utterly transportive.
Chatto & Windus, £18.99
The first in a trilogy from the Jamaican Booker Prize winning author, this novel is an entrancing journey through a mythological Africa. Here, a hunter seeks out a mysterious lost child, meeting a witch, a giant and a shape-shifting leopard en route.
Penguin, £9.99
Bryson’s escapades through Europe, from deep north Norway to Lake Como and Capri, are still as spit-your-tea-out comical as they were when he first published this memoir in 1991. Rereading it 30 years on also gives it a nostalgic kind of escapism, thanks to details such as traveller’s cheques and smoky bars.
Black Swan, £10.99
It isn’t until Rachel Chu arrives in Singapore to spend time with her boyfriend’s family for the summer that she learns quite how jaw-droppingly wealthy he is. This satirical novel which later inspired the Hollywood movie is hilarious, riotous fun.
£9.99, Atlantic
A jazz musician steps off the Empire Windrush and into post-war London, where he falls in love – then a terrible discovery pulls him into a mystery that keeps us all guessing. This immersive story about community and belonging sweeps you up with its storytelling.
HQ, £9.99
The first novel in the romantasy series which has sparked an entire genre phenomenon is like stepping into a whole new world. Inspired by Beauty and the Beast, it tells the story of a young huntress held captive in a magical land, and is dripping with passion and peril.
Bloomsbury, £9.99
From the author of Call Me By Your Name – later adapted into the film starring Timothée Chalamet – here is a compelling, sensual novel set on the balmy Amalfi coast, where a group of friends invite an enigmatic older man into their circle.
Faber, £12.99
In 1944 Tuscany, the chance encounter between Evelyn, a 60-something art historian, and Ulysses, a young British soldier, will change their lives forever. The ripple effects which unfold over the 400 pages which follow make this novel a thing of rare beauty.
Fourth Estate, £9.99
In this atmospheric adventure story from the author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Margery Benson abandons her dead-end life in order to travel to the other end of the world in search of a mystery beetle – an unlikely assistant in tow.
Black Swan, £9.99
Last year’s Booker Prize winner is a delicate, magnificent story set on a space station where six astronauts from all walks of existence orbit the Earth, conduct experiments and muse on the meaning of life. For a novel so short, Orbital has heaps to say about humanity.
Vintage, £9.99
In a story suffused with the same kind of life-affirming magic as in his megahit The Midnight Library, Haig’s most recent novel sees a retired maths teacher called Grace arriving in Ibiza in search of some answers about a long-lost friend.
Canongate, £20
In a quiet back alley in Japan, a magical café offers its visitors the chance to travel back in time. This multi-million-seller is both utterly absorbing and a gentle, soul-soothing story which reminds you how to live.
Picador, £10.
Part travelogue, part food memoir, this book sees Cloake sets off on a Tour de France – the kind which involves cycling from cafe to restaurant to market in order to sample the cuisine. Featuring mouth-watering descriptions of food, beautiful landscapes, and a witty narrator, it oozes joy.
Mudlark, £9.99
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