The books that CHANGED MY LIFE

Matt Haig

Matt Haig is the bestselling author of Reasons To Stay Alive and the children’s book Evie In The Jungle, which is a World Book Day* choice. He shares the books that have made him laugh, cry and think…

THE LAST BOOK THAT MADE ME LAUGH

I find Dawn O’porter’s sense of humour very funny, and I enjoyed her latest book So Lucky. It’s about the lives of three women who, on the outside, seem very together but, in reality, aren’t living the lives they appear to. It’s full of rude and candid moments and it’s a total joy.

THE LAST BOOK THAT MADE ME CRY

I cry at films all the time, but I rarely shed a tear while reading. I found My Name Is Why by poet Lemn Sissay very moving. It focuses on his childhood in the north in social care. He’s passed from pillar to post and doesn’t know his family background, which affects his sense of identity. It feels very real and you can really relate to this child, who is struggling through the system.

THE BOOK THAT CHANGED THE WAY I THINK

There have been plenty. Most recently it was David

Wallace-wells’s book about the environment,

The Uninhabitable Earth. It’s not so much that it offers masses of new information about climate change, but it presents all the science that’s there in a very compelling, urgent way.

THE BOOK THAT GOT ME THROUGH A DIFFICULT TIME

I had a breakdown when I was 24 and I couldn’t watch TV or listen to music because they brought on panic attacks, so I read a lot. One book that was a comfort was Cosmos by Carl Sagan. It’s a very accessible book about science and it made me a feel a bit smaller in the universe.

THE BOOK I MOST OFTEN GIVE TO OTHERS

I’ve given Letters Of Note by Shaun Usher to lots of people. It’s a big, glossy hardback, with letters from everyone from Churchill to Virginia Woolf.