Journalist Hunter Davies chooses his favourite books
From An Inland Voyage to Just William, the British journalist and author picks his best reads

The journalist, author and broadcaster picks his favourites. His latest book, "Letters to Margaret: Confessions to my Late Wife", was published earlier this month.
Just William
Richmal Crompton, 1922
I never laughed as much in my life at any books. Then or now. Strange that I loved them so much – for William's life was so different from mine. He was living in the posh suburbs somewhere in the south, and I was in a council house in Carlisle. Yet his anti-adult stance, his japes and scrapes and his awful spelling had me in hysterics.
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.
Available on The Week Bookshop
An Inland Voyage
Robert Louis Stevenson, 1878
His first book, about a canoe trip with a friend on the Belgium-France borders. Potty really, it was a just an excuse for an adventure. Nothing much happens, but it's ever so charming. Robert Louis Stevenson is the writer I would most liked to have met in the flesh – always ill, but always on the move.
The Northern Fells
Alfred Wainwright, 1962
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
One of seven books in his "Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells". He produced them his way – with his drawings, his hand-writing. They are works of art as well as being vital for any Lakeland lover.
Available on The Week Bookshop
My Name is not Matilda: Miranda's Memoirs
Miranda Amapola Symington, 2024
I encouraged her to write and publish this book, her first at the age of 77. I was just so amazed by her life story – working as a model in Chelsea in the 1960s, crossing the Atlantic in a home-made trimaran with her husband in the 1970s. But mostly because she is such a talented, touching, revealing writer.
Daisy Belle: Swimming Champion of the World
Caitlin Davies, 2018
OK, she is my daughter but it is such an excellent idea: the fictionalised life of a real 19th century working-class woman who was a diver and swimmer. These modern Olympic swimmers, eh, they have it easy. Daisy had it hard. Ever so touching.
-
5 bullseye cartoons about the reasons for mass shootings
Cartoons Artists take on gun worship, a price paid, and more
-
Lisa Cook and Trump's battle for control the US Fed
Talking Point The president's attempts to fire one of the Federal Reserve's seven governor is represents 'a stunning escalation' of his attacks on the US central bank
-
'Three Pads' Rayner: a housing hypocrite?
Talking Point As real estate moguls go, the Deputy PM is 'hardly Donald Trump'
-
8 hotels that show off the many facets of Japan
The Week Recommends Choose your own modern or traditional adventure
-
Millet: Life on the Land – an 'absorbing' exhibition
The Week Recommends Free exhibition at the National Gallery showcases the French artist's moving paintings of rural life
-
Thomasina Miers picks her favourite books
The Week Recommends The food writer shares works by Arundhati Roy, Claire Keegan and Charles Dickens
-
6 laid-back homes for surfers
Feature Featuring a home near a world-renowned surf spot in Hawaii and a house built to withstand the elements in South Carolina
-
Say farewell to summer at these underrated US lakes
The Week Recommends Have one last blast
-
Twelfth Night or What You Will: a 'riotous' late-summer jamboree
The Week Recommends Robin Belfield's 'carnivalesque' new staging at Shakespeare's Globe is 'joyfully tongue-in-cheek'
-
Hostage: Netflix's 'fun, fast and brash potboiler'
The Week Recommends Suranne Jones is 'relentlessly defiant' as prime minister Abigail Dalton
-
Music reviews: Chance the Rapper, Cass McCombs, and Molly Tuttle
Feature "Star Line," "Interior Live Oak," and "So Long Little Miss Sunshine"