Katie Marsh, Joanna Bolouri, Kathryn Hughes and Chrissie Manby tell us about their beach bag must-haves!

If you’re enjoying the heatwave by the sea, or gearing up for a trip abroad, you’ll no doubt be planning what to bring (and more importantly, what to read!) on the beach this summer.

Find out what some of our favourite authors are packing in their beach bags…

Katie Marsh, author of The Rest of Me

I’d rather no one ever saw inside my beach bag, aka a battered tote bag which has been with me since the dawn of time, but… lip gloss, suncream (I burn at the mildest ray), some books – this year ‘A Thousand Stars and You’ by the wonderful Isabelle Broom and some historical fiction too as this is my ultimate relaxation reading. There’ll also be chewing gum and cash for the many ice creams that I will ‘need’ during the day plus very cheap sunglasses (my daughter likes to ‘borrow’ them, aka bury them in the sand and forget where they are).

Joanna Bolouri, author of Relight My Fire

The first things in my beach bag will be sunscreen. As the daughter of a redhead, I’ve inherited the power of burning spectacularly within six minutes of being in the sunshine. I use factor fifty but it doesn’t work.  I’ll also have my phone, at least two paperbacks and some chewing gum so I can be minty fresh while I get sunstroke.

Kathryn Hughes, author of The Key

If I am doing a beach holiday, which is not often as I prefer to be more active, then I take the opportunity to catch up on my reading.  I hate squinting into the sun, so I download a few books and listen instead.  It’s a different experience to reading a book yourself as the actors really bring the book to life.  Joanne Froggatt narrated The Key and even though I knew what she was going to say next, she made very every line sound so fresh. The rest of my bag will be filled with the usual clutter; towel, suncream, sunglasses and a mushy banana taken from the breakfast buffet to save me buying lunch.

Chrissie Manby, author of Once in a Lifetime

I’m not much of a beach bunny.  My skin goes from milk to beetroot at the first hint of sun, therefore, super-high SPF sun-cream is my only beach-bag must. I need a beach shopping-trolley for all the books I’d like to take.  This year I have already read and loved Christina Patterson’s The Art of Not Falling Apart, Kamin Mohammadi’s La Bella Figura, Mike Gayle’s The Man I Think I Know and Lucy Dillon’s Where The Light Gets In.  I’m looking forward to reading Fiona Walker’s The Country Set next.