At the weekend, whilst visiting my mum’s house, I finished the glorious Woman in White. Not sure what to read next, I took a waltz through my mum’s hall bookshelf and stumbled upon Edna Ferber’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel So Big.

And so big, it is. Gorgeous, beautiful, exciting, it’s the story of a gambler’s daughter in Chicago at the turn of the century and what becomes of her as a school teacher and  beyond in a Dutch farming community after his death. You must read this book; two days in, and I’m nearly done.