This week’s Bookbencher is Dr Caroline Lucas, the Green MP for Brighton Pavilion. She reveals her soft spot for Julian Barnes and that she’s not a fan of Roger Scruton.
Which book’s on your bedside table at the moment?
Interpreters by Sue Eckstein, a friend who lives in Brighton
Which book would you read to your children?
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury
Which literary character would you most like to be?
Pippi Longstocking
Which book do you think best sums up ‘now’?
Maggie Gee’s The Flood (if we don’t act fast!)
What was the last novel you read?
Pereira Maintains by Antonio Tabucchi
Which book would you most recommend?
Nothing to be Frightened Of by Julian Barnes
Given enough time, which book would you like to study deeply?
Which books do you plan to read next?
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes; Roger
Scruton’s Green Philosophy
(in the expectation of feeling very cross); Chris Mullin’s 3rd volume of diaries, A Walk-On Part; To the End of the Land by David Grossman
If the British Library was on fire and you could only save three books, which ones would you take?
William Blake – ‘The Rosetti Manuscript’, with early drafts of the Songs of Experience, The Everlasting Gospel, The Vision of the Last Judgement and The Public Address
Complete autograph manuscripts of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre
Oscar Wilde’s letters to Lord Alfred Douglas and original typescripts of The Picture of Dorian Gray and Mrs Arbuthnot (A Woman of No Importance)
Fleur Macdonald is editor of The Omnivore.
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