Stephen Mangan's debut, Escape the Rooms (Scholastic £6.99), for children aged 9+ and with drawings by his sister, the illustrator and designer Anita Mangan, is out now.
1. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Lewis Carroll (1865)
Aged ten, I was cast as the Mock Turtle in our school play and, like the old pro I already was, I did my research and read the book. It blew my mind. The odd, funny, upsidedown world of Alice was so eccentric, strange and slightly frightening that I was hooked. Plus, I had a crush on the Queen of Hearts (the girl in our play, not the one in the book). A hormonal and literary explosion that left me altered forever
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Penguin £5.99; The Week Bookshop £5.99
2. Great Expectations
Charles Dickens (1861)
A wonderful, gripping story of crime and guilt, crushed ambition and ruined fortunes, snobbery and anxiety, with a spectacular cast of characters and a beautiful ending. Near perfection.
Penguin £6.99; The Week Bookshop £2
3. Don’t Point That Thing At Me
Kyril Bonfiglioli (1972)
A riot of gags, one-liners and great characters. There’s half a plot in there too, I think. A book that’s fantastic company because, like the best people, it’s exciting, clever, witty, disreputable and occasionally unpleasant.
Penguin £8.99; The Week Bookshop £6.99
4. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾
Sue Townsend (1982)
This made me realise that books could speak directly to me and to my world (obsessing over my forlorn love life, writing bad poetry, harbouring over-earnest convictions). As an adult, you realise Sue brilliantly reflects what’s happening in wider politics and society through the prism of this ordinary household in middle England. As a kid, you laugh at Adrian’s obsession with the length of his “thing”.
Penguin £6.99; The Week Bookshop £5.99
5. If This Is A Man
Primo Levi (1947)
An astonishing account of the author’s time in Auschwitz, written, he said, “with love and rage”. He finds humanity in arguably the bleakest episode in human history. Almost unbearable.
-
The curious history of hanging coffinsUnder The Radar Ancient societies in southern China pegged coffins into high cliffsides in burial ritual linked to good fortune
-
The Trump administration says it deports dangerous criminals. ICE data tells a different story.IN THE SPOTLIGHT Arrest data points to an inconvenient truth for the White House’s ongoing deportation agenda
-
Ex-FBI agents sue Patel over protest firingspeed read The former FBI agents were fired for kneeling during a 2020 racial justice protest for ‘apolitical tactical reasons’
-
Homes with great fireplacesFeature Featuring a suspended fireplace in Washington and two-sided Parisian fireplace in Florida
-
Film reviews: ‘The Secret Agent’ and ‘Zootopia 2’Feature A Brazilian man living in a brutal era seeks answers and survival and Judy and Nick fight again for animal justice
-
Wake Up Dead Man: ‘arch and witty’ Knives Out sequelThe Week Recommends Daniel Craig returns for the ‘excellent’ third instalment of the murder mystery film series
-
Zootropolis 2: a ‘perky and amusing’ movieThe Week Recommends The talking animals return in a family-friendly sequel
-
Storyteller: a ‘fitting tribute’ to Robert Louis StevensonThe Week Recommends Leo Damrosch’s ‘valuable’ biography of the man behind Treasure Island
-
The rapid-fire brilliance of Tom StoppardIn the Spotlight The 88-year-old was a playwright of dazzling wit and complex ideas
-
‘Mexico: A 500-Year History’ by Paul Gillingham and ‘When Caesar Was King: How Sid Caesar Reinvented American Comedy’ by David Margolickfeature A chronicle of Mexico’s shifts in power and how Sid Caesar shaped the early days of television
-
Homes by renowned architectsFeature Featuring a Leonard Willeke Tudor Revival in Detroit and modern John Storyk design in Woodstock
