ON MY BEDSIDE TABLE Penny Junor

Best known for her royal biographies, Penny Junor’s latest book, The Duchess: The Love Affair That Rocked The Crown, is about Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. ◆ I am two-thirds of the way through A LITTLE LIFE by HANYA YANAGIHARA, and it is so gripping, so horrifying, so touching that I can barely put it down. It is a huge book – 720 pages – but I am already worried about getting to the end and having to leave the four main characters behind. ◆ While writing about Camilla, I came across EDWARDIAN DAUGHTER, written by her grandmother, SONIA KEPPEL, whose mother, Alice Keppel, was Edward VII’S long-term mistress. The young Sonia knew him as Kingy. It was a joy to find. A fascinating snapshot of the age and beautifully written. ◆ Another book that formed part of my research was DAPHNE DU MAURIER’S tortured love story, REBECCA, which I first read long ago. It has some chilling similarities to the story of Prince Charles, Diana and Camilla – the famous ‘three of us in the marriage’. ◆ With four children that I would read to every night, and now six grandchildren, I know most of the DR SEUSS books by heart, but I only discovered OH, THE PLACES YOU’LL GO! when my second son asked me to read it at his wedding. Dr Seuss was much more than just a master of rhyme. ◆ I always have a copy of SAM LEITH’S hilarious book YOU TALKIN’ TO ME? RHETORIC FROM ARISTOTLE TO OBAMA by my bed, and not just for sentimental reasons. Sam may be my eldest son, but this is a really interesting and very funny book about the art of persuasion.