Bookbenchers: Sir Peter Bottomley MP

Fleur Macdonald

Saturday, 18th February 2012

This week's Bookbencher is Sir Peter Bottomley, MP for Worthing West. Not only does he have a magnificent eye for detail but he's given some truly original answers. He's managed to ignore Shakespeare, Chaucer and the Magna Carta in favour of da Vinci, and has also revealed a certain predilection for unpopular opinions and Dorothy L. Sayers.

Which books are on your bedside table at the moment?

A Bible: read in a year with daily sections of OT, NT, Psalm and Proverb
Daughter of the Desert: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell by Georgina Howell
Transition in Afghanistan 2011-2014, NATO Parliamentary Studies
The Etymologicon, a circular stroll through the hidden connections of the English language by Mark Forsyth
The Second Book of General Ignorance by John Lloyd & John Mitchinson
Elizabethan England by G B Harrison, No.116 Benn’s Sixpenny Library

Which book would you read to your children?

(unpublished (unfinished too)) ‘What you might be interested in after I die’ by Peter Bottomley (the children’s ages sum to 115)

Which literary character would you most like to be?

Keith Stewart, the technical journalist featured in Trustee from the Toolroom, Nevil Shute’s last novel published after his death (KS is described as the honest artisan with integrity)

Which book do you think best sums up 'now'?

Unpopular Opinions by Dorothy Sayers; see ‘The Mysterious English and Are Women Human’

What was the last novel you read?

Number Nine by A P Herbert (re-read) his great story of a civil service selection.

Which book would you most recommend?

Unpopular Opinions by Dorothy Sayers

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

Unpopular Opinions by Dorothy Sayers. There is always something new to consider; there is always something remembered to admire.

Which books do you plan to read next?

Objective Knowledge by Karl Popper (why logic matters) recommended by Jim Simon of Microsoft, a good teacher
Making a Comprehensive Work: The road from bomb alley by Peter Dawson (he was Michael Frayn’s inspiration for the head in the 1986 film Clockwise)

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

The draft score for the Messiah by George Frideric Handel
Lewis Carroll's ‘Alice's Adventures Under Ground’ (the handwritten book that became Wonderland)
Leonardo da Vinci’s selection of sketches: I value the geometric pictures; they bring back some of the happiest hours of my education.

Fleur Macdonald is editor of the Omnivore.

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