WHATBOOK..? ANDY McNAB

. . . are you reading now?

TALKING To Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell — a really interesting look at how we interact with people when we meet them for the first time and whether we automatically believe they tell the truth, or retain a healthy dose of scepticism.

I am probably naturally suspicious, but it shows me I’ve got a lot to learn about making snap judgments.

That’s not to say there isn’t a place for them — sometimes you have to work someone out pretty quickly — but this book might just help you reach the right conclusion about someone.

And it won’t surprise you to hear that sometimes it’s the most honest and empathetic-looking people who are the ones to watch out for, not the oddballs!

. . . would you take to a desert island?

WHEN I did Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs back in 2005, I think I said I wanted to take the entire works of Charles Dickens.

If you replaced the horses with cars and coal fires with central heating, his books could have been written yesterday. They are about people — not the time in which they were written.

However, if it has to be just one book, it would be Great Expectations. I grew up near the marshes of Kent, where much of it is set and, while the landscape is certainly different today, I recognise what Dickens was depicting: the sense of place, the smells and the muffled sounds in the murky fog.

I could keep re-reading this book and get something new out of it every time.

. . . first gave you the reading bug?

TOUCHING The Void by Joe Simpson. It’s a true account of a mountain-climbing accident where one climber fell and the other couldn’t pull him back up.

Eventually, presuming he was dead, the other cut his rope and left him.

As well as being gripping, this tale of survival helped me learn how to put a sense of place and environment into my writing. You could really feel how cold, scared and hungry the narrator was.

I realised for the first time that writing a book isn’t just about getting down a linear story, it’s about adding in the landscape, the temperature, the sights, sounds and smells . . .

My previous reading experience had been the Janet And John series, where this stuff was in short supply!

. . . left you cold?

I HATE this question. But I’m afraid it was Brick Lane by Monica Ali. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize a while ago and it’s published by my publisher (sorry, everyone!), but it simply wasn’t for me.

I am passionate about encouraging people to read, but I believe part of that is about giving them the confidence to put a book down if they aren’t enjoying it and pick up something else instead.

The last thing anyone wants is for someone to think that books aren’t for them just because they picked up the wrong one. There is something out there for everyone — they just need to find it!

WhAtever It takes, Andy McNab’s brand-new thriller, is published by Bantam Press at £20.