Book Four 2014:

Les Enfants Terribles by Jean Cocteau

First admission is that I’ve had a long-standing obsession with the films of Jean Cocteau. When I was in my teens I was lucky enough to stumble across La Belle Et La Bete and Orpheé and was so blown away by what he was doing with visuals in the 40s and early 50s that I’ve held him in the highest regard ever since.

Having said that, I once owned a copy of his short novel Les Enfants Terribles for a few years and it sat unloved on the shelf until I charity shopped it. My wife bought it recently at Xmas and liked it so much I decided to give it a go too.

So should you. It’s short, very beautiful in places (at least the translation is) and wanders between Greek tragedy and an episode of Girls. All good in my book.