MY SIX BEST BOOKS

SWORD OF HONOUR

Evelyn Waugh

(Penguin Classics, £14.99)

My parents were only interested in books that reflected their views.

I’m the opposite.Waugh was very right wing, he hated the working class, yet his work has a tremendous humanity.This is the greatest evocation of war and the depths of suffering.

MISTAKES WERE MADE (but Not by Me)

Carol Tavris

(Pinter Martin, £9.99)

This sums up why we make bad decisions then refuse to admit it. Our brains are wired for self-justification.

BEYOND BLACK

Hilary Mantel

(Fourth Estate, £8.99)

She wrote this before Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies and, with a dark humour, it brilliantly captures the seediness of mediums and crappy psychic fairs.

TIME OUT TOP 100 CHEAP EATS IN LONDON

(Out of print)

I am still trying to eat my way through this. It’s a hobby that requires dedication.

ANNA KARENINA

leo Tolstoy

(Penguin Classics, £8.99)

An epic psychological novel set in 19th century St Petersburg. It’s all about love and betrayal and the meaning of life.

THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO

Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels (Penguin, £5.99)

I have to include this, it shaped my childhood. Marx and Engels were quite a double act – the Jewish intellectual and the German-born Manchester factory owner.

Without Engels’ support, Marx would never have finished Das Kapital.