Unlike the main character in the Roald Dahl classic Matilda, I feel so fortunate to have grown up in a home full of books.
I suppose that’s hardly surprising having an author as a father, and my remarkable mother has also written for the Latin American handbooks and other publications too.
My clever elder sister Mary was an early member of the Harry Potter Fan Club.
From the playgroup I went to before school, you can see above the message that “Early learning is vital” was drummed into us at an early age! My sister and I also enjoyed regular visits to the very welcoming, friendly public library in town…
I count myself lucky to have the first book dedicated to me at the tender age of 2, which meant that I have always known that I was loved, which is a fantastic feeling:
Here is a list of some of the books I remember reading and enjoying over the years, though I’m sure there must be many more which have since slipped my mind…
The Adventures of Asterix by René Goscinny
The Babar Books by Jean de Brunhoff
Mr Cosmo the Conjuror by Allan Ahlberg
The Katie Morag Series by Mairi Hedderwick
The Tales of Beatrix Potter by Beatrix Potter
Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy by Lynley Dodd
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Ring of Words by Roger McGough
The Famous Five by Enid Blyton
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
The Willows in Winter by William Horwood
Horrible Histories series by Terry Deary
The Goosebumps Books by R. L. Stine
Pig-Heart Boy by Malorie Blackman
Many works by Roald Dahl, including:
The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis
The Phoenix and the Carpet by E. Nesbit
The Harry Potter Series by J. K. Rowling
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde
Educating Rita by Willy Russell
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
After Juliet by Sharman Macdonald
The Tempest by William Shakespeare
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Der Besuch der alten Dame by Friedrich Dürrenmatt
Ich fühl mich so fifty-fifty by Karin König
The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter
The Vesuvius Club by Mark Gattis
Acid Drops by Kenneth Williams
Lateral Thinking by Edward de Bono
An Accidental MP by Martin Bell
Ruling Britannia: Ruling Britannia: The Failure and Future of British Democracy by Andrew Marr
Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour by Kate Fox
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss
Between you and I: A Little Book of Bad English by John Humphries
Chance Witness: An Outsider's Life in Politics by Matthew Parris
The New Elites: A Career in the Masses by George Walden
Who’s Afraid of Margaret Thatcher? by Tariq Ali
Clash of Fundamentalisms by Tariq Ali
The Obama Syndrome by Tariq Ali
The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama
Dreams from my Father by Barack Obama
The Faith of Barack Obama by Stephen Mansfield
Charles Kennedy: A Tragic Flaw by Greg Hurst
A Fortunate Life by Paddy Ashdown
My Autobiography by Ming Campbell
How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must) by Ann Coulter
An Honourable Deception? New Labour, Iraq, and the Misuse of Power by Clare Short
I'm Not the Only One by George Galloway
Did Things get Better? by Polly Tonybee and David Walker
Better or Worse? Has Labour Delivered by Polly Tonybee and David Walker
Talking to a Brick Wall by Deborah Mattinson
The Age of Consent by George Monbiot
The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Friedman
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
Notes on a Scandal by Zoë Heller
The Political Animal: An Anatomy by Jeremy Paxman
How Mumbo Jumbo Conquered the Earth by Francis Wheen
What Terrorists Want by Louise Richardson
Ireland: A History by Robert Kee
An Accidental MP by Martin Bell
Friends, Voters, Countrymen: Jottings on the Stump by Boris Johnson
An Ordinary Man: An Autobiography by Paul Rusesabagina
The Autograph Man by Zadie Smith
Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore
The Disrespect Agenda: Or How the Wrong Kind of Niceness Is Making Us Weak and Unhappy by Lincoln Allison
Beyond Happiness: How to find lasting meaning and joy in all that you have by Anthony Seldon
Why is This Lying Bastard Lying to Me by Rob Burley
WTF by Robert Peston
How to Run Britain: Therapy for a Traumatised Nation by Robert Peston and Kishan Koira
Your Journey, Your Way by Horatio Clare
The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk
The Course of Love by Alain de Botton
The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read by Phillipa Perry
The Power of Ritual by Casper ter Kuile
It Didn't Start with You by Mark Wolynn
A Life in Questions by Jeremy Paxman
Keep Talking: A Broadcasting Life by David Dimbleby
Airhead: The Imperfect Art of Making News by Emily Maitlis
Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression — and the Unexpected Solutions by Johann Hari
Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig
Is it just me? by Miranda Hart
Courting the Wild Twin by Dr Martin Shaw
The Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood
A House of Pomegranates by Oscar Wilde
The Machine Stops by E. M. Foster
These may be the best books of all.
