This week’s Shelf Lifer, Mary Quant (pictured here in 1960s), invented both the mini-skirt and hot pants. If that weren’t enough, she later claimed to have invented the duvet cover. She tells us which part of the Bible she would take into solitary confinement and which character in Little Women gets her going. Her autobiography
This week’s bookbencher is Rory Stewart, the Conservative MP for Penrith and the Border. Stewart also has written a book review for this week’s issue of the Spectator: on Andrew Alexander’s dramatic reappraisal of American foreign policy since 1945, America and the Imperialism of Ignorance. 1) Which book’s on your bedside table at the moment?
On this week’s Shelf Life, the genial John Simpson confesses which classics he’s never finished, and gives a very thorough account of which literary characters he would most like to bed. 1) As a child, what did you read under the covers? Nothing dodgy, I’m afraid. I remember being caught reading The Coral Island under the sheets at the
This week’s bookbencher is Sam Gyimah, the Conservative MP for Surrey East. Which book’s on your bedside table at the moment? Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel: a great historical novel, covering a fascinating period. The personalities may change, but the human dynamics of politics are the same today as portrayed in the 16th century.
Mark Mason, author of Walk the Lines, is in the hot seat this week. He tells us that no woman is truly attractive unless you can imagine going to the pub with her, and admits to a fear that he may be one of Holden Caulfield’s ‘phonies’. 1) What are you reading at the moment?
This week’s bookbencher is Gloria De Piero, the Labour MP for Ashfield. She has a soft spot for Wuthering Heights and Karl Marx’s Das Kapital. Which book’s on your bedside table at the moment? Race of a Lifetime. I’m half way through it. It’s a behind the scenes tale of the last Presidential race. It
This week’s Shelf Life features Alain de Botton, who is currently stoking controversy with his latest book, Religion for Atheists. De Botton, who tweets @alaindebotton, tells us which book he’d give a lover and why exactly he’d like to meet Madame Bovary. 1) What are you reading at the moment? Some porn: Modern Architecture since
This week, our bookbencher is Matthew Hancock, the Conservative MP for West Suffolk. Which book’s on your bedside table at the moment? Finest Years: Churchill as Warlord 1940-1945, by Max Hastings. In biography, taking on Churchill is about as big as it gets. Many people thought that Roy Jenkins’ masterful work, with its insights drawn
Fresh from sixty radio and TV appearances in 2011 alone, the popular historian and constitutional expert, Kate Williams, is on Shelf Life this week. She tells us about her religious fervours under the covers and what’s worse than finding Mein Kampf on someone’s bookshelf. Her first novel, The Pleasures of Men, is out tomorrow. 1) What
Robin Walker, the Conservative MP for Worcester, is this week’s bookbencher. He tells us about the influence that his father (Peter Walker) had on his reading, and his love of Elgar. Which book’s on your bedside table at the moment? When Christ and his Saints Slept, a historical novel about Stephen and Matilda by Sharon
Opening presents is tough: hiding greed, masking disappointment and feigning gratitude. You’re also probably being filmed for the family time capsule and you’ll be on YouTube within hours. That’s what happened to a poor American woman called Emily this Christmas. She’s starting 2012 as the latest social media sensation. The video has been removed, but
This week’s Shelf Lifer is the indefatigable Joan Collins. She tells us which literary character she’d pick to share a bed with and exactly how many self-help books she’s written. What are you reading at the moment? Frank Sinatra: The Boudoir Singer by Danforth Prince and Darwin Porter As a child, what did you read
The first Bookbencher of 2012 is Pamela Nash, MP for Airdrie and Shotts. She tells us what she likes about Roald Dahl and surprises us with the book she’d most recommend. Which book’s on your bedside table at the moment? Eight years behind everyone else, I am reading Lionel Shriver’s We Need to Talk About
If Time Magazine declared 2011 the year of the protester, then it seems quite fitting that, in a public vote, the Galaxy Book Awards crowned Caitlin Moran’s How to Be a Woman their book of the year. Touted as a modern day feminist call-to-arms, it is also the memoirs of a former music journalist turned Times
This week, Paul Torday tells us about his fear of appearing on the stage, and reveals what he’d put on the GCSE English Literature syllabus. His new novel, The Legacy of Hartlepool Hall, is published today. 1) As a child what did you read under the covers? I used to read the Narnia books by
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
This week Ian Rankin tells us which Jilly Cooper heroine he would sleep with and the title he’d give his self-help book. 1) As a child, what did you read under the covers? Enid Blyton books and lots and lots of comics (Victor, Hotspur, plus annuals dedicated to those same comics). 2) Has a
This week’s Bookbencher is Kwasi Kwarteng, MP for Spelthorne and author of Ghosts of Empire which was published by Bloomsbury this summer and reviewed by Douglas Hurd in The Spectator in September. He chose a refreshing mixture of fiction and non-fiction, but surprised us with his choice of the literary character he’d most like to
Jeffrey Archer is on this week’s Shelf Life. He lets us know what practical gift he’d give a lover for Christmas (apart from his latest bestseller Only Time Will Tell) and what spotting the Labour Manifesto on someone’s shelf might make him do… 1) What are you reading at the moment? Boomerang by Michael Lewis
Dame Anne Begg is this week’s Bookbencher. The MP for Aberdeen South tells us what she is currently reading and which books she would save if the British Library caught fire. What book’s on your bedside table at the moment? The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone. Except it is no longer on my