The journalist, author and broadcaster picks his favourites. His latest book, “Letters to Margaret: Confessions to my Late Wife”, was published earlier this month.
Just William
Richmal Crompton, 1922
I never laughed as much in my life at any books. Then or now. Strange that I loved them so much – for William’s life was so different from mine. He was living in the posh suburbs somewhere in the south, and I was in a council house in Carlisle. Yet his anti-adult stance, his japes and scrapes and his awful spelling had me in hysterics.
Available on The Week Bookshop
An Inland Voyage
Robert Louis Stevenson, 1878
His first book, about a canoe trip with a friend on the Belgium-France borders. Potty really, it was a just an excuse for an adventure. Nothing much happens, but it’s ever so charming. Robert Louis Stevenson is the writer I would most liked to have met in the flesh – always ill, but always on the move.
The Northern Fells
Alfred Wainwright, 1962
One of seven books in his “Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells”. He produced them his way – with his drawings, his hand-writing. They are works of art as well as being vital for any Lakeland lover.
Available on The Week Bookshop
My Name is not Matilda: Miranda’s Memoirs
Miranda Amapola Symington, 2024
I encouraged her to write and publish this book, her first at the age of 77. I was just so amazed by her life story – working as a model in Chelsea in the 1960s, crossing the Atlantic in a home-made trimaran with her husband in the 1970s. But mostly because she is such a talented, touching, revealing writer.
Daisy Belle: Swimming Champion of the World
Caitlin Davies, 2018
OK, she is my daughter but it is such an excellent idea: the fictionalised life of a real 19th century working-class woman who was a diver and swimmer. These modern Olympic swimmers, eh, they have it easy. Daisy had it hard. Ever so touching.
From An Inland Voyage to Just William, the British journalist and author picks his best reads
