MY SIX BEST BOOKS

LYNNE TRUSS, 61, is the author of the bestselling book about punctuation, Eats, Shoots And Leaves. She wrote the radio series A Certain Age and is a regular newspaper columnist. Her fifth novel The Lunar Cats (Century, £9.99) is out now.

by Charles Dickens

Penguin, £5.99 I read Dickens with great excitement at university. I love the richness and use of imagery.

You feel this is a very personal book for him, dealing with social mobility, which is an issue for me too. I’ve always identified with the awkwardness Pip feels.

by Eric Partridge

Penguin, £14.99 A learned, funny style guide. I’ve had a copy since about 1970 and I find it really entertaining.

When I was about 14, there was a series on the radio called Many A Slip which I enjoyed. I probably bought this then. ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

by Lewis Carroll

Macmillan, £10.99 I have known this all my life. We had a nice edition in the house and I learned poems from it at an early age. It’s full of madness but it’s a brilliant book about the confusion of growing up. THE ENDEAVOUR JOURNAL OF SIR JOSEPH BANKS

by Joseph Banks

Amazon only Banks was a naturalist on the Endeavour. I like the idea of the first-hand account of ploughing through the seas not knowing what you’re going to find. I have a lot of books about Captain Cook’s voyages and have finally put them to good use in my new novel. COLD COMFORT FARM

by Stella Gibbons

Penguin, £7.99 A parody of rural tragedies by the likes of Hardy and Lawrence that is so funny.

The main character has no time for maudlin mincing about so she enters the novels and sorts people out.

It’s very clever. THE WOMAN IN WHITE

by Wilkie Collins

Penguin Classics, £7.99 At university this was less literary than what I had been reading so was a big treat. I was immersed.

It’s a satisfying mystery and has multiple narrators, a device I like using myself.