WHAT BOOK..?

…are you reading now?

I WAS sent an early copy The House Of Marvellous Books by Fiona Vigo Marshall, which is told in diary form by the hapless Mortimer Blackley, an assistant editor at a publishing house specialising in obscure and esoteric non-fiction. I adore books about books and all the strange idiosyncrasies of the publishing world really come to life in this novel.

…would you take to a desert island?

A COOK’S Book by Nigel Slater. He writes so evocatively about the simple everyday dishes that feed the soul as well as the stomach, from roast chicken to a hearty bowl of soup or a slice of chocolate cake slathered in rich buttercream, so it would be essential — if bittersweet — reading if I was having to survive on pineapples (which give me heartburn) and whatever fish I managed to catch.

…first gave you the reading bug?

BALLET Shoes by Noel Streatfeild, which I still re-read once a year and is etched into my DNA. It was my first sense of living in a book and I considered myself to be an honorary Fossil sister. When I was a child, I yearned to be Posy despite having no aptitude for ballet. Of course, now that I’m grown up, I would much rather be Petrova, though I suspect my aviation skills would be even worse than my arabesques.

…left you cold?

I FINALLY read Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy a couple of years ago and it was one of the most miserable reading experiences I’ve had, even though I skipped all the guff about farming and religion. Despite the weighty prose stylings, I found the characters silly and histrionic and it didn’t enrich my life in any way, other than giving me bragging rights when I managed to finish it. I’m now deeply suspicious of anyone who claims it as their favourite novel.

■ London, With Love by Sarra Manning is published by Hodder at £16.99.