MY SIX BEST BOOKS

LUCY WORSLEY, 43, is a historian and curator who has presented many BBC documentaries including The First Georgians, Empire Of The Tsars and Six Wives. Her latest book Jane Austen At Home (Hodder, £25) is out now and the companion TV programme airs on BBC Two tomorrow.

EMMA by Jane Austen

Scholastic, £6.99 My favourite Austen novel because it’s got a prickly, difficult heroine. It has elements of a detective story in it and also the nicest hero in Mr Knightley who is kind and wise.

My new book is dedicated to my husband who I name as my own Mr Knightley.

MOOMINVALLEY IN NOVEMBER by Tove Jansson

Puffin, £6.99 My brother and I have always loved the Moomins so it’s annoying how popular they are now. We used to spend hours copying out the pictures. I like the way that they’re so eccentric and this book is darker than the others.

I’ve got my favourite Moomin illustrations up in my office.

PREP by Curtis Sittenfeld

Black Swan, £8.99 She is a fantastic novelist and this is about life in a boarding school in America. It is addictive. She captures the angst of being a teenager and has an unlikable heroine, which appeals to me. She has a marvellous facility for looking into the minds of slightly odd, introverted women.

ROBERT SMYTHSON AND THE ELIZABETHAN COUNTRY HOUSE by Mark Girouard

Out of print This is about architecture in the 16th century. It inspired me to go on to do a PhD and to become a historian. It’s about the author’s hunt for traces of houses by Robert Smythson. Hardwick Hall is one of his most famous.

BEHIND CLOSED DOORS: AT HOME IN GEORGIAN ENGLAND by Amanda Vickery

Yale, £10.99 A historian’s view of the world of Jane Austen. Vickery is a social historian who can summon up a mental world from a shopping list or a wallpaper sample.

This is about what went on in the Georgian home and she discovers that women had more power than we think.

MARIE ANTOINETTE by Antonia Fraser

Out of print The combination of author and subject hit the sweet spot.

I enjoyed this because of the subject’s astonishing life story which took her from Austria to France, to fame and then the guillotine.

Fraser is a fantastic storyteller and displays a nice feminist undercurrent.