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.
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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
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.
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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.
