The books that CHANGED MY LIFE

THE LAST BOOK THAT MADE ME LAUGH Former Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy’s latest book is Empty Nest, a selection of poems on parenting. Here, she shares the books that made her laugh, cry and think

Carol Ann Duffy

One Two Three Four: The Beatles In Time by Craig Brown, an exploration of the Fab Four, is always witty and sometimes laugh-out-loud hilarious. Brown is particularly funny when imagining fictional twists of fate: what if Yoko had ended up with Ringo, and how might that have affected her art?

THE LAST BOOK THAT MADE ME CRY

Collected Poems of the great Irish poet Eavan Boland, who died last year. Her poems on motherhood made me weep afresh. Her work will endure.

THE BOOK THAT CHANGED THE WAY I THINK

This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein is a powerful and passionate polemic that should influence the way we proceed politically in confronting climate change. Klein is among the most important and accessible activists for climate justice now writing.

THE BOOK THAT GOT ME THROUGH A DIFFICULT TIME

I revert to comfort reading when stressed and, for me, the work of PG Wodehouse is the Champagne of prose. I’d choose his Jeeves stories: a safe but sparkling universe created by a master.

THE BOOK

I MOST OFTEN GIVE TO OTHERS

I try to always have a spare copy of The Life Of The Bee by Maurice Maeterlinck to give to friends who haven’t yet read it. It’s a sublime, lyrical meditation on bees that transcends its subject and speaks to the soul in the human.

Empty Nest: Poems For Families (Picador) edited by Carol Ann Duffy is out on 18 February