Rachel Cooke writes: "I love the weeks before a summer holiday. Specifically, I like planning what books I'll be taking. As I write, with three weeks to go, the floor of my office resembles a busy section of the Pennine Way, books that might make it into my suitcase stacked in wobbly heaps, like cairns. It is important to get this right. What could be worse than opening that pristine hardback only to find it's a dud, and that you wish you'd brought along an old pal – Evelyn Waugh or Dorothy L Sayers – instead?"