MY SIX BEST BOOKS
JOE McGANN, 59, starred in the TV series The Upper Hand, Rockliffe’s Babies and Night And Day. He is appearing in Sting’s musical The Last Ship which tours until July 10. thelastshipmusical.co.uk FLESH AND BLOOD: A HISTORY OF MY FAMILY IN SEVEN SICKNESSES
by Stephen McGann
Simon & Schuster, £8.99 I read very little fiction these days. I get enough of that in my job, I guess. This is by my brother Stephen and he has created a rattling good read.
He includes the Irish potato famine, which is why we ended up in Liverpool, and we had a great-uncle who survived the Titanic. INTO THE SILENT LAND: TRAVELS IN NEUROPSYCHOLOGY
by Paul Broks
Atlantic, £11.99 How we think and how that shapes society have been a hobbyhorse of mine for years.
This is fantastic – part case studies, part essays on consciousness and existence – and he writes beautifully and evocatively. TENNESSEE WILLIAMS: MAD PILGRIMAGE OF THE FLESH
by John Lahr
Bloomsbury, £14.99 A brilliant biography by a great critic. I’ve performed in a couple of Williams’ plays and I’m fascinated by that post-war period of American literature. Without being fawning, Lahr has a great sympathy for the man, who is outspoken, outrageous and tragic. THOMAS PAINE’S RIGHTS OF MAN
by Christopher Hitchens
Atlantic, £9.99 Paine, the great English thinker, is a hero of mine and Hitchens tackles his famous book which argues against monarchy and was a cornerstone of the American revolution. It’s a précis of how to do literary criticism. SAPIENS: A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMANKIND
by Yuval Noah Harari
Vintage, £9.99 Harari wears his intelligence lightly and writes in an accessible way. It’s an exhaustive anthropological study but I rattled through it. It’s constantly surprising and enriching. TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE
by Mitch Albom
Sphere, £8.99 I bought this when a friend was coping with his partner dying. It’s a lovely little book by a sports writer who meets his old university lecturer Morrie, who has a degenerative disease, every Tuesday. It’s amusing and full of wisdom.