Best books… Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

The chef, food writer and activist picks five books he’s recently enjoyed. He will speak at the Budleigh Salterton Literary Festival on 11 March (budlitfest.org.uk); his latest book is Eat Better Forever (Bloomsbury £26)

How to Change Your Mind: The New Science of Psychedelics by Michael Pollan, 2018 (Penguin £10.99). In search of meaning beyond the confines of Covid, and indeed normal human consciousness, I turned on and tuned in to Michael Pollan’s gripping history of, and compelling case for, psychedelics. It’s high time to re-open our minds to their use in medicine and therapy.

The Sea is not Made of Water by Adam Nicolson, 2021 (William Collins £20). A heady blend of natural history, Scottish folklore and existential philosophy, this beautiful book beguiles like a crystalline rock pool shimmering with life. (If birds grab you more than shrimps and anemones, then Adam Nicolson’s previous book, The Seabird’s Cry, is equally satisfying.)

The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined by Steven Pinker, 2011 (Penguin £16.99). It’s not a bad time to be reminded that, despite all the woes of the world, human life is not as nasty, brutish and short as it once was. And Steven Pinker is prepared to painstakingly prove that’s the case, fact by well-attested fact.

Mayflies by Andrew O’Hagan, 2020 (Faber £8.99). Can the carefree camaraderie of youth transform into enduring, sustaining male friendship, especially when the going gets tough? This short, sweet novel’s late-boomer soundtrack is achingly familiar to fiftysomethings like me, and the ending is unbearably happy-sad.

Again, Rachel by Marian Keyes, 2022 (Michael Joseph £20). I quit Marian Keyes after a reckless binge in the early noughties. But I had to orchestrate a relapse for the return of Rachel, the recovering addict and hopeful romantic who somehow helps us all to find our better, truer selves. I’ve still got 100 pages to go, but part of me wishes it was 1,000.