After a brief hiatus, the Spectator’s Bookbencher interview returns. First up is Douglas Alexander, the Labour MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South and shadow foreign secretary. He tells which books he’ll be reading this summer.
1) Which book’s on your bedside table at the moment?
Leaving Alexandria by Richard Holloway — the recently published memoir of one of Scotland’s most controversial and colourful churchman on his life’s journey from faith to doubt.
2) Which book would you read to your children?
As a family we have read and loved all the Katy Morag adventures set on the fictionalised Isle of Struay based on the actual Isle of Coll in the Hebrides. Right now I am reading with my daughter ‘Katy Morag Delivers the Mail’. And my son has introduced me to the delights of Michael Morpurgo. We are now on Kensuke’s Kingdom.
3) Which literary character would you most like to be?
Richard Hannay — adventures involving foreign powers set against the magnificence of the Scottish country side — what more could you want?
4) Which book do you think best sums up ‘now’?
The Social Animal by David Brooks — Daniel Patrick Moynihan said the central conservative truth is that culture matters. The central liberal truth is that politics can shape culture. This book helps you understand these challenges.
5) What was the last novel you read?
And The Land Lay Still by James Robertson — unsurprisingly its Alex Salmond’s favourite book. While I admire the writing I remain deeply unconvinced by its account of the animating forces in Scottish life over recent decades.
6) Which book would you most recommend?
Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain — I read this when I was 18 and still find it a profoundly moving account of love, loss and war at the start of the 20th century.
7) Given enough time, which book would you like to study deeply?
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy — somehow over the last 40 years I haven’t got round to reading it yet
8) Which books do you plan to read next?
My mother, who herself was born in China — the daughter of Scottish medical missionaries — just leant me a book called Through Earth Wind and Fire which is a history of the Scottish missionaries in China which I hope will help fill in some of the gaps in my family history.
9) If the British Library were on fire and you could only save three books, which ones would you take?
Three books that remind me of earlier travels:
The Complete Works of Thomas Hardy, which I read while volunteering as a student in Kenya.
The Complete Works of Walter Scott, which I read on the trans-Siberian Railway.
Wild Swans by Jung Chang, which I ready while backpacking in Vietnam.
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