MY SIX BEST BOOKS
BILL ODDIE, 75, is known for the long-running comedy series The Goodies and was one of the original hosts of Springwatch. He has also presented Birding With Bill Oddie and other nature programmes. His latest book Tales Of A Ludicrous Bird Gardener (New Holland, £16.99) is out on June 30. BILLY BUNTER OF GREYFRIARS SCHOOL
by Frank Richards
Out of print This is the sort of book you couldn’t do now because it’s so non-PC: people are cajoled for being fat, lazy and foreign. But it had a wonderful energy.
I got to play Bunter on radio and I can’t help slipping into the voice, to most people’s annoyance. A FIELD GUIDE TO THE BIRDS OF BRITAIN AND EUROPE
by Roger Tory Peterson
Out of print I was six or seven when I started bird watching and this book was almost life-changing. Until the ’50s, there weren’t any good bird books, then Peterson developed a style of immaculate drawings with lines pointing to the features that were key to identifying the bird. That led to a whole genre. JOURNAL OF 1826
by John James Audubon
University of Nebraska, £25.99 Audubon trekked across America collecting information about birds, which was dangerous at the time.
I love the fact that there’ll be an entry in his journals that says he was attacked by a Comanche war party followed by one where he got a splendid drawing of a plover. BENEATH THE UNDERDOG
by Charles Mingus
Canongate, £9.99 I’m a slow reader but I buy a lot of music biographies.
This is full of self-pity and raging anger which is quite shocking.
He had a famously bad temper yet a lot of his music is very moving and passionate. THE A-Z GUIDE TO GOOD MENTAL HEALTH: YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE FAMOUS TO HAVE MANIC DEPRESSION
by Jeremy Thomas
Penguin, £12.99 I was diagnosed as having manic depression when my wife and daughter noticed my up-and-down behaviour.
This is the book that helped me because it included an account of someone who was just like me: he got overconfident about what he was doing and impatient with people around him. UNNATURAL SELECTIONS
by Gary Larson
Out of print An American cartoonist with my kind of humour. It’s a bit distasteful at times but, if you’re feeling sad and you’ve just come away from the shrink, this will cheer you up.