As BBC1’s lavish version of Tolstoy’s novel begins, Sarah Hughes tells why its strength, vision and humanity make it a book worth reading again and again I first read _War and Peace_ on a Greek island in 1987, the summer before I turned 15. Fed up with lugging an extra suitcase full of books on a two-week holiday, my mother had laid down the law: “No more than three books. Make sure you choose them well.” Obviously I picked the biggest books and thus began the holiday armed with Margaret Mitchell’s _Gone With The Wind_, MM Kaye’s _The Far Pavilions_ and Tolstoy’s epic story of Russian life during the Napoleonic wars, a new six-part adaptation of which, by Andrew Davies, starts on BBC1 on Sunday night. Continue reading...
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