MY SIX BEST BOOKS

JENNIE BOND, 65, was the BBC’s royal correspondent from 1989 to 2003. She has also presented the BBC News and Great British Menu and narrates an audiobook, Elizabeth II: Life Of A Monarch which is available to download, free with a 30-day trial, from audible.co.uk/hrh

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE by Jane Austen

Vintage Classics, £7.99 I have some fond childhood memories of reading Austen. This is a great romantic story.

Like most teenagers I was madly in love with my image of Mr Darcy. It confronts a lot of women’s issues as well.

ANNA KARENINA by Leo Tolstoy

Penguin, £8.99 I have a clear image of lying on the settee when I was about 15 and almost pulling out my eyebrows because I was so riveted. All I knew about Russia was that it was probably a very wicked place but I was caught up in the love story and the naughtiness of it.

ROOM by Emma Donoghue

Picador, £8.99 This was one of my first ventures into psychological drama. A boy lives with his mother in one room and that’s all he has ever known.

It’s a story of rape and kidnap which is awful but absolutely absorbing.

BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP by SJ Watson

Black Swan, £7.99 Another psychological thriller that I’ve told everyone I know to read. It’s about a woman who wakes up every morning and cannot remember anything so she keeps a diary to remind her of who she is. It’s a terrifying tale of deception.

MY BRILLIANT FRIEND by Elena Ferrante

Europa, £11.99 I’m not very good at taking up recommendations from my husband but I gave this a go.

It’s an incredible story of friendship between two women as they grow up in Naples and a great portrait of 1950s society in that part of Italy.

MADAME BOVARY by Gustave Flaubert

Penguin, £8.99 I studied French and European literature at Warwick and I’m fond of all things French. This is a dark love story about a doctor’s wife who has affairs.

Her name was Emma and my husband was reading this when I got pregnant so we named our daughter after her.