Ten minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times.

Widely respected historical novelist (and very occasional SF or fantasy writer) Cecelia Holland talks with Gary about the smoky conditions in northern California, the joys of doing research, her own new novel about Mongol invasions in the Middle East, and the small comforts of reading favourite poets like W.H. Auden, Richard Howard, and Edna St. Vincent Millay.

Books mentioned include:

Heart of the World by Cecelia Holland

The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777 by Rick Atkinson

Washington’s Crossing by David Hackett Fischer

Plagues and Peoples by William McNeill

A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley

The Bedlam Stacks by Natasha Pulley