Best books… Theo Fennell
The jewellery designer chooses his favourite books. His memoir, I Fear for This Boy (Mensch Publishing £25) – a picaresque retelling of the highs and lows of his colourful life and career – is out now
The Night Watch by Sarah Waters, 2006 (Virago £8.99). I don’t know of any writer who better conjures up the atmosphere of a time and place. This book perfectly catches a very particular backwater of wartime London.
Henry “Chips” Channon: The Diaries edited by Simon Heffer, two volumes, 2021 (Hutchinson £35 each). I have a love of diaries that I am not proud of, but the very best are written by the most waspish and indiscreet people, crippled by snobbery. These are unputdownable.
The New Confessions by William Boyd, 1987 (Penguin £9.99). I love fictional life stories and John James Todd is one of my favourite characters, even though not particularly sympathetic. The writing and plot line is, as always with Boyd, superb, and you are truly engaged in this life of happenstance.
Restoration by Rose Tremain, 1989 (Vintage £9.99). Merivel is another wonderful character and his bawdiness, touched with melancholy, gives him a memorable voice. I love all of Tremain’s books and this is probably my favourite.
A Dance to the Music of Time, Volumes 1-4 by Anthony Powell, 1951-1975 (Arrow £20 each). This series of novels has its lovers and haters – I have been one of the former since I read the first ones as a boy and caught up as they were published into young manhood. I read them every few years and still find the leanness of the prose, the knowing humour and the characters quite brilliant.
Somme by Lyn MacDonald, 1983 (Penguin £9.99). I have been obsessed with the Great War since I was very young and there is no book that serves it better. The humour and poetry, the photography, the film and the plangent songs make it the first true, mixedmedia conflict, and it still pulls at the heartstrings even though wars as awful continue to blight the world.
Titles in print are available from The Week Bookshop on 020-3176 3835. For out-of-print books visit biblio.co.uk