When he is not wrestling with the Inland Revenue, filing my tax returns and grammatically bitch-slapping this blog, my accountant finds the time to indulge his own love of the written word with literary related courses. His most recent was based on a literary Italian connection, and produced a reading list that includes about six or seven books I have always wanted to read with a bottle of Prosecco.

Here is that list:

1. Balzac, Honoré de (2007) Sarrasine, London, Hesperus Classics.
2. Douglas, Norman (2009) South Wind, London, Capuchin Classics.
3. Forster, E. M. (2007) Where Angels Fear to Tread, London, Penguin Classics.
4. Godden, Rumer (1995) Pippa Passes, London, Pan Books.
5. Hawthorne, Nathaniel (1991) The Marble Faun, London, Penguin Classics.
6. James, Henry (1986) Daisy Miller, London, Penguin Classics.
7. Mann, Thomas (2008) Death in Venice & Other Stories, New York & London, Vintage Classics.
8. Spark, Muriel (2006) The Driver’s Seat, London, Penguin Modern Classics.
9. Williams, Tennessee (1999) The Roman Spring of Mrs Stone, New York & London, Vintage Classics.
10. Berendt, John (2006) The City of Falling Angels, London, Sceptre.
11. Brodkey, Harold (1995) Profane Friendship, New York & London, Vintage.
12. Forster, E. M. (2006) A Room with a View, London, Penguin Classics.
13. Godden, Rumer (1981) The Battle of the Villa Fiorita, London, Futura.
14. James, Henry (2007) The Aspern Papers, London, Dodo Press.
15. James, Henry (2008) The Wings of the Dove, London, Penguin Classics.
16. Lawrence, D. H. (2007) D. H. Lawrence and Italy: Sketches from Etruscan Places, Sea and Sardinia, Twilight in Italy, London, Penguin Classics.
17. McEwan, Ian (1998) The Comfort of Strangers, New York & London, Vintage.
18. Wharton, Edith (1998) Roman Fever, London, Virago Modern Classics

You can read the exploits of a cultured accountant at Pilrig 74