Bookbenchers: Robin Walker MP

Fleur Macdonald

Saturday, 14th January 2012

Robin Walker, the Conservative MP for Worcester, is this week’s bookbencher. He tells us about the influence that his father (Peter Walker) had on his reading, and his love of Elgar.

Which book’s on your bedside table at the moment?

When Christ and his Saints Slept, a historical novel about Stephen and Matilda by Sharon Penman and The Arabs, a History by Eugene Rogan. Neither is an entirely cheerful read but they are both fascinating in their own right, well written, full of detail and personal colour and deal with the sufferings of people and nations when they are let down by weak or divided leadership. I think understanding history is essential to understanding the present.

Which book would you read to your children?

I already love reading to my nephews and nieces, but don’t yet have any children of my own. I was lucky to grow up with two parents who were passionate about books and so I have a tough act to follow when it comes to reading to children. When they are young almost anything by Bill Peet, I remember my father reading me The Gnats of Knotty Pine which was an old favourite of both of ours. When they’re a bit older it would have to be The Hobbit or The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Which literary character would you most like to be?

The Count of Monte Cristo, who wouldn’t?

Which book do you think best sums up ‘now’?

I wouldn’t say it necessarily sums up now, but in the late 1970s when all was doom and gloom and everybody was talking about economic decline, my father went away and wrote a book called The Ascent of Britain, setting out a vision for the way forward focused on equality of opportunity, enterprise and balancing efficiency with compassion. I think we need more of that kind of positive thinking now.

What was the last novel you read?

Alexandria by Lindsey Davis, I am a big fan of her Falco novels.

Which book would you most recommend?

Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s Shadow of the Wind, a great holiday read, I loved it and couldn’t put it down

Given enough time, which book would you like to study deeply?

I’d like to return to Cicero and Sallust, both of whom I studied in depth at university. One day, I’d love to write a novel based on Sallust’s Jugurtha — there’d be no point in trying to do Cicero as Robert Harris has already done it so well — it’s a story of power politics and trails the rise and fall of a charismatic North African leader who is first backed by and then discarded by the superpower of the day. 

Which books do you plan to read next?

I want to return to Patrick O’Brian, whose books I have hugely enjoyed but haven’t had a chance to read for a few years, but right now my wife’s copy of The Fear Index is enticing me from the bedside table so it’ll probably be that first.

If the British Library was on fire and you could only save three books, which ones would you take?

Anthony Trollope’s The Warden or if I could get away with it the entire Barchester Chronicles series, Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and the manuscripts of Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations. Growing up in Worcestershire his music has been part of my life for as long as I can remember and it would be tragic for the original manuscript of his greatest works to be lost to the nation.

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