In a move that will surely surprise no one, famous authors have opinions about what to read on holiday. A Guardian roundup, introduced by Jenny Colgan, features picks from Freida McFadden, Mick Herron, Robert Harris, and others, offering a curated selection of page-turners for sandy settings.

Colgan warns against a literary diet of too many psychological thrillers ("My Wife's Sister's Husband's Psychopath"), which leads to confusion and grumpiness, or too much sugary romance, which apparently causes dental decay. She also advises against packing that guilt-inducing doorstopper you've been meaning to read for years, as it will only make you scroll Instagram instead.

The key, she argues, is variety: fiction and nonfiction, light and heavy, ready to be swapped out at a moment's notice. And if you find a water-stained copy of James Herbert's Domain in your holiday cottage, Colgan says throw all rules out the window and commit to 600 pages of post-nuclear mutant rats in London. Or go full Maeve Binchy. The choice is yours.