Parliament is back from the Easter recess, and so is the Spectator’s Bookbenchers. First back into the hotseat is Elizabeth Truss, the Tory MP for South West Norfolk. She is inundated with children’s books, and wants to get to grips with some serious science.
1) Which book’s on your bedside table at the moment?
Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities and
Britannia: One Hundred Documents That Shaped a
Nation by Graham Stewart.
2) Which book would you read to your children?
Edward Lear Nonsense, Alice in Wonderland — and all the Julia Donaldson (Gruffalo) books. Kings and Queens of England by Eleanor and Herbert Farjeon is my daughter’s favourite, particularly Henry VIII (Bluff King Hal was full of beans, he married half a dozen queens….)
3) Which literary character would you most like to be?
I love the forensic logic of Sherlock Holmes and Jane Austen’s Emma is another favourite.
4) Which book do you think best sums up ‘now’?
How the West was Lost by Dambisa Moyo. We need to shake out of our complacency and compete with the rising economies of the world.
5) What was the last novel you read?
I’ve just finished the Wallander books by Henning Mankell. Scandi-crime novels have been a complete revelation to me. I am always in search of a new seam to mine.
6) Which book would you most recommend?
American Pastoral by Philip Roth, although I have just recommended Bram Stoker’s Dracula to my dad.
7) Given enough time, which book would you like to study deeply?
I would really like to get into some serious physics and computer science books.
8) Which books do you plan to read next?
I want to read Money by Martin Amis and Turing’s Cathedral by George Dyson.
9) If the British Library were on fire and you could only save three books, which ones would you take?
A collection of John Betjeman poetry and then two on pot luck as I don’t normally reread stuff. Or maybe I would take the The Great Gatsby and The View from No.11 by Nigel Lawson.
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