In the hot-seat this week: Louise Mensch, the Conservative MP for Corby. Author of 15 bestselling novels, she knows a good read when she sees one. She has a string of recommendations for those in search of light relief after a stressful week; and she lists some Old English classics for those who want a challenge.
1) Which book’s on your bedside table at the moment?
I’ve Got Your Number by my friend Sophie
Kinsella (Madeline Wickham). She never fails with brilliantly light comic romance. A perfect stress-buster.
2) Which book would you read to your children?
The last one wasThe Story of
Ferdinand, an early favourite of both mine and my father’s, and it worked with them too. My father, as a boy, loved the idea of Ferdinand smelling the flowers in the pretty
ladies’ hats. We are also reading some of the Church Mice series. My
daughter is very fond of the school mouse.
3) Which literary character would you most like to be?
Galadriel, in whose hair the light of the Two Trees shines. I would like to be an elven queen, and go on adventures, and triumph over evil. Alternatively, Elizabeth Bennett married rather well. Ten
thousand a year is not to be sniffed at, especially with a handsome man thrown into the bargain.
4) Which book do you think best sums up ‘now’?
One Day, by David Nicholls. It captured a flavour of
so many people’s lives today, and the dance we do with our youth as it fades. It deserves all the success it has had.
5) What was the last novel you read?
The Art of Fielding, by Chad Harbach. This
has been more of a sensation across the Atlantic than it has here, but it should receive the same reception in England. It’s a big, sweeping, poetic book mostly about men and their struggles. With
a small liberal arts college as background; a depressed daughter, a frustrated academic discovering he is gay, a love affair, a brilliant baseball fielder that loses his confidence… all human
life is here, weak and helpless, hopeful and beautiful; it is a slow and languorous read, but none the worse for that. You can lose yourself in the novel for weeks. I cannot recommend it highly
enough.
6) Which book would you most recommend?
My favourite book is the Lord of the Rings, which
astonishes every time it is re-read. But as that is so popular, let me recommend instead a childhood favourite, Granny’s Wonderful Chair by Frances Browne.
A linked collection of short stories in the form of a longer book, it is uplifting and intensely visual in the descriptions, which is astonishing as the author was blind from birth. Published in
1856 and still in print, there is a certain magic to these stories that attracts generations of children and can equally be read by adults, if there is room for a little sorcery in their lives.
7) Given enough time, which book would you like to study deeply?
Morris and Skeat’s Specimens of Early
English. I have forgotten almost all the Middle English, Anglo-Saxon and Norse I studied at university, and I should like to recover some ground.
8) Which books do you plan to read next?
I’d like to read William Hague’s biography of Wilberforce. I cannot confess
to a great interest in Wilberforce, but I enjoyed Hague’s Pitt the Younger immensely (despite being equally
uninterested in Pitt the Younger when I started out — I thought it would be a worthy book, that I ought to read). To my surprise, I kept turning the pages and was gripped wanting to know what
would happen. I’m sure that Hague will hook me on Wilberforce in a similar fashion.
9) If the British Library were on fire and you could only save three books, which ones would you take?
Which books are actually in the British library? The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, the earliest Bible available, and a first edition of Alice Through the Looking Glass — that would sum up British history and achievement pretty well, I reckon.
Comments