MY SIX BEST BOOKS

COLD Feet star Robert, 62, returns to the London stage in the double-bill Love, Loss & Chianti at Riverside Studios from February 25.

CUE FOR TREASON by Geoffrey Trease

(Puffin, £6.99)

A medieval adventure story set in the Lake District. I read this as a child and loved it.

THE GREAT TERROR: A REASSESSMENT by Robert Conquest

(Bodley Head, £20)

I was intrigued by Stalin’s show trials in the Soviet Union in the 1930s and to learn how the state can be used to prop up tyranny. An important book.

A SCATTERING

by Christopher Reid

(Faber & Faber, £10.99)

This is Reid’s poetic tribute to his late wife Lucinda and it’s the most articulate expression of grieving without ever being mawkish.

It’s utterly humane and uplifting. I do this in the first half of my stage show.

THE MADNESS OF CROWDS by Douglas Murray

(Bloomsbury, £20)

At a time when no one is allowed to debate, this is an eloquent plea for the free exchange of views; for people to discuss things openly and not to stress. It gets the pulse racing.

CIDER WITH ROADIES

by Stuart Maconie

(Ebury, £9.99)

When it comes to musical cults, I’m always at least two decades behind so I have to look at them from historical accounts and this is a funny, well-written account of punk and the Happy Mondays.

It’s personal and it illustrates the times.

THE NORTON ANTHOLOGY OF POETRY (WW Norton, £38.99)

My daughter is in America and we discuss one of these poems every week – it’s an oblique way of finding out how she’s feeling.