My life in books RUTH JONES
The actress, writer and debut novelist reveals the reads that have shaped her life
MY FAVOURITE BOOK AS A CHILD WAS… The Cat In The Hat – though it slightly disturbed me, because the cat didn’t really look much like a cat. I also adored the Paddington books, which Mrs Wild used to read to us in infant class. I loved the idea of this bear found at Paddington Station, who had arrived from Peru as a stowaway and lived on marmalade – but more than anything, he could talk! And as a kid, you just accept things like that.
MY FAVOURITE LINE FROM A BOOK IS… ‘The music is always on, it just needs to be turned louder, for as long as there is breath in our lungs, we must keep dancing.’ It’s from Rupi Kaur’s The Sun And Her Flowers, which my stepdaughter Louise recently bought me. I love its optimism, and the idea of the human spirit triumphing over adversity.
MY FAVOURITE LITERARY CHARACTER IS… There are so many, but I’m going to choose Peggotty from David Copperfield because she exudes such warmth and maternal love in the stark loveless landscape of young David Copperfield’s life, but also because her family lived in an upturned boat at Great Yarmouth – genius!
MY FAVOURITE BOOK EVER IS… I have several, so I’m going to choose two – a classic and a modern: Kate Atkinson’s Behind The Scenes At The Museum because it has one of the most heart-stopping, gob-smackingly massive revelations in it. Also David Copperfield, because Dickens was a Zen master when it came to the English language. It tells this epic, beautiful, harrowing and uplifting life story while giving detailed insight into Victorian society.
THE LAST BOOK THAT MADE ME CRY WAS… I often get that lump-in-the-throat moment when reading but the last book that really made me howl undignified gulping sobs, was Jojo Moyes’ After You, and the scene on the rooftop where they let go of their grief. Superb and so moving.
THE BOOK THAT GOT ME THROUGH A DIFFICULT TIME IS… The Little Prince by Antoine de Saintexupery. It has such beautiful, simple and comforting expressions and philosophies. At a time of grief and bereavement, I think this book can offer some solace. My favourite quote from it is: ‘You alone will have the stars as no one else has them... In one of the stars I shall be living, in one of them I shall be laughing. And so it will be as if all the stars were laughing, when you look at the sky at night... You, only you, will have stars that can laugh.’
THE ONE BOOK EVERYONE SHOULD READ IS… Pride And Prejudice. Such remarkable and incisive observations of human behaviour, and so elegantly and cleverly written.
Never Greener by Ruth Jones (Bantam, out 5th April)