Greg Doran picks his favourite books
From the 1840s to the 2020s, former artistic director of the RSC lists his most-loved reads

The former artistic director of the RSC picks his favourites. He will be talking about his book "My Shakespeare" at Jewish Book Week on 2 March in London.
Dead Souls
Nikolai Gogol, 1842
Preparing for rehearsals for "The Government Inspector", at Chichester Festival Theatre, I finally pulled down the great Ukrainian novelist's masterwork "Dead Souls". It has to take the prize for the funniest book with the gloomiest title I have ever read.
Subscribe to 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.
The Outcry
Henry James, 1911
The novels of Henry James are great read out loud in the bath. My latest is his last, "The Outcry", which is about artworks flooding across the Atlantic during the Gilded Age. I obsessively tracked the diaspora of Shakespeare’s First Folio around the world recently. Nearly two-thirds of the extant 229 copies now grace the shelves of American libraries. I have so far seen 204.
The Dream Factory
Daniel Swift, 2025
My new favourite book isn't out yet. It is published next month. Daniel Swift's "The Dream Factory" is a thrilling account of Shakespeare's apprenticeship in the first public theatre in London. It's a story I thought I knew but didn't. Swift brightly illuminates that raucous, scrappy, litigious world.
The Great Passion
James Runcie, 2022
Since I lost my husband (actor Antony Sher) three years ago, I have looked for work that might help articulate the process of grieving. Each journey through this dark narrow valley is different, so I have tended to avoid books which aim to record individual experience. But "The Great Passion", surprised and moved me. It tells the story of the composition of Bach's St Matthew Passion, and with eloquent beauty describes the unpredictability of grief.
Modern Nature
Derek Jarman, 1991
The most life-enhancing meditation on death I know is "Modern Nature", the filmmaker's journal of the nourishment he derived from the garden he built on the coast of Dungeness as he faced his approaching death from HIV. Poetical and mischievously elegiac.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Today's political cartoons - March 30, 2025
Cartoons Sunday's cartoons - strawberry fields forever, secret files, and more
By The Week US Published
-
5 hilariously sparse cartoons about further DOGE cuts
Cartoons Artists take on free audits, report cards, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Following the Tea Horse Road in China
The Week Recommends This network of roads and trails served as vital trading routes
By The Week UK Published
-
Following the Tea Horse Road in China
The Week Recommends This network of roads and trails served as vital trading routes
By The Week UK Published
-
Roast lamb shoulder with ginger and fresh turmeric recipe
The Week Recommends Succulent and tender and falls off the bone with ease
By The Week UK Published
-
Adolescence and the toxic online world: what's the solution?
Talking Point The hit Netflix show is a window into the manosphere, red pills and incels
By The Week Staff Published
-
Snow White: Disney's 'earnest effort to meet an impossible brief'
Talking Point Live-action remake of Disney classic is not the disaster it could have been – but where's the personality?
By The Week UK Published
-
Don McCullin picks his favourite books
The Week Recommends The photojournalist shares works by Daniel Defoe, Lesley Blanch and Roland Philipps
By The Week UK Published
-
6 breathtaking homes in capital cities
Feature Featuring a glass conservatory in Atlanta and a loft library in Boston
By The Week US Published
-
Playhouse Creatures: 'dream-like' play is 'lively, funny and sharp-witted'
Anna Chancellor offers a 'glinting performance' alongside a 'strong' supporting cast
By The Week UK Published
-
The CIA Book Club: 'entertaining and vivid' book explores a huge Cold War secret
The Week Recommends 'Gripping' narrative explores a covert smuggling operation across the Iron Curtain
By The Week UK Published