Sara Cox: I need to be left alone! How to take your holiday reading seriously
Happy Place
Fearne Cotton
4.6 • 15.2K Ratings
🗓️ 21 August 2025
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Are you obsessed with finding the best books – yes, multiple – to read on holiday? Broadcaster Sara Cox is!
Welcome to The Happy Place Guide To Holidays! In this chat – brought to you by British Airways Holidays – Fearne and Sara share their thoughts on how to take your holiday reading more seriously. They natter about the joy of reading a novel set in the country you’re holidaying in, and whether the vivid descriptions of a location have inspired them to travel there themselves.
They also swap their own experiences of writing books, and reveal the beautiful locations that have informed elements of their own novels. Plus, Sara explains why she’s trying to stop writing about characters who are useless and dysfunctional in her books, and why she’s re-living her party-girl days...
You can find a list of all of Fearne and Sara’s recommended reads below!
British Airways Holidays are ATOL protected, offer a 24hr holiday helpline, and allow you to book with a low deposit. All holidays include a generous baggage allowance per person. Go to Ba.com/holidays to find out more.
Fearne and Sara’s reading list:
Remarkably Bright Creatures – Shelby Van Pelt
Girls – Kirsty Capes
Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
Butter – Asako Yuzuki
The Convenience Store Woman – Sayaka Murata
The Island – Victoria Hislop
Daisy Jones And The Six – Taylor Jenkins Reid
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo – Taylor Jenkins Reid
Carrie Soto Is Back – Taylor Jenkins Reid
Girl On A Train – Paula Hawkins
The Compound – Aisling Rawle
Ma’am Darling – Craig Brown
Lady In Waiting – Anne Glenconner
Chocolat – Joanne Harris
The Thousand Lights Hotel - Emylia Hall
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Transcript
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| 0:00.8 | Hello and welcome to the Happy Place Guide to Holidays, brought to you by British Airways Holidays. |
| 0:07.0 | I'm Fern Cotton and today I'm chatting to Sarah Cox. |
| 0:10.8 | I think reading on holiday is so lovely because it feels like a real indulgence because you have the time when you don't at home. |
| 0:19.1 | But I don't think that reading should be seen. I think there's a bit |
| 0:21.3 | with reading, it's got a bit of a reputation like it's something you do just to relax and just, you know, that it's a bit self-indulgent, a little bit lazy, you know, during the day you're having half an hour with a good book. But I think it's so brilliant for you. Well, you will have gather that this isn't an ordinary episode of the podcast. This is the happy place guide to holidays, |
| 0:22.0 | an exclusive... for you. Well, you will have gathered that this isn't an ordinary episode of the podcast. This is |
| 0:38.4 | the Happy Place Guide to Holidays, an exclusive Happy Place mini series brought to you by British Airways |
| 0:45.0 | holidays. They're all about helping you take your holidays more seriously and this series is all |
| 0:50.4 | about putting the exciting magic back into travel. |
| 0:58.5 | In each episode, we're having a natter about the things I and you lot, |
| 1:02.4 | according to British Airways holidays, love most about going on holiday. |
| 1:05.0 | Things like discovering new cuisine, |
| 1:07.8 | finally getting around us some lovely self-care, |
| 1:12.1 | and getting better at a hobby you never seem to have time for at home. |
| 1:19.5 | Today is one of my favourite topics of all time. Books. We obviously have the Happy Place Book Club here and Sarah Cox hosts the Radio 2 book club. So I've decided the two of us are going to |
| 1:25.2 | join forces for today and create a sort of exclusive |
| 1:28.7 | holiday reads book club where we just wang on about the joy of reading on holiday. In fact, |
| 1:34.7 | I know loads of you will love this because according to a recent UGov survey commissioned |
| 1:39.7 | by British Airways holidays, 47% of UK adults read more on holiday than at home. |
| 1:46.0 | 47%. |
| 1:46.7 | This is going to be proper escapism. |
| 1:50.6 | Let's do it. You're right, Sarah Cox. |
... |
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