I have prevaricated for weeks before getting around to this – basically my problem is that when I started to think about it, the last ten books I read were on the list. That’s because it’s extremely rare for me to finish a book and not have felt moved by it and engaged. In fact, I don’t think it’s an unusual phenomenon to finish a book and grieve for its loss. I had to rein myself in from the recent books and that made the job difficult. Each year many, many books pass through my hands and I never read anything a second time. This makes reading a very different experience from music in my world because I play cherished records over and over again, whereas I never return to a book I’ve already read. I even get narked by reading more than one book by a single author in a short period of time because their common traits grate.

• Rosy is my relative – Gerald Durrell – I think it’s true to say that I have read every book he wrote and as far as I can recall, this is the only work of fiction in his repertoire. It’s one of the funniest things I have ever read. I used to snort with laughter on the tube while reading it! (Not a pretty sight.) (PHOTO)
• A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens – I will take to the grave the utterly wonderful memory of sitting on my Dad’s knee while he read this to us when we were little. Charles Dickens is a wonderful story teller and my Dad can feel proud to have done the great man justice.
• Pig – Roald Dahl – Although it took many years to come to fruition, this book started my journey to becoming a vegetarian. It was read to me while I was at primary school in the days before Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was published in the UK. I’m not sure that it’d be considered appropriate material for young children now.
• Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding – OK, she’s one of my guilty secrets but I LOVE Bridget I don’t care if that makes me a laughing stock.
• The Plague Dogs – Richard Adams – vegetarianism first, then anti-vivisection, I have gone to great lengths to source all of my toiletries and cosmetics from non-animal-tested sources since I was a teenager. I can’t remember whether I read this before or after the start of that journey.
• White Palace – Glenn Savan – Clazuk recommended this book to me after she’d picked up on it from a review in Time Out. She read it, I read it, then I bought it for Colin. We all loved it.
• Lord of the Flies – William Golding – the most horrifying, terrible book I have ever read. It was a compulsory book for my O Level English Literature. It’s not an exaggeration to say I think it scarred me for life.
• Wild Swans – Jung Chang – although just about everyone whose opinion I value raved about this book, I resisted reading it for years. When I did, I was completely transfixed, devouring it in about a day and a half. Powerful, moving stuff.
• Snow Falling on Cedars – David Guterson – this book is exquisitely written. The prose is some of the most beautiful I have ever read. Apparently (according to Wikipedia) it took him ten years to write while he did a day job as a teacher. All I can say is I hope he understands how magnificent his baby is!
• The Map Of Love – Ahdaf Soueif – this is such a beautiful book. It made me cry.
• Enduring Love – Ian McEwan – it’s a deeply disturbing read but it’s also compelling, believable and elegant.
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Stieg Larsson – although I realise that admitting this meant I’d had my head in a bucket for years, I discovered this only about three years ago, after hearing Larsson’s long-term partner on Woman’s Hour on Radio 4. She talked about his life, death and her lack of status in Swedish law’s eyes and I was intrigued by what she said so I sought out a second hand copy, read it and then had to force myself to wait before reading the other two books in the trilogy. It’s dark, violent and utterly gripping.
• England my England – D H Lawrence – I love Lawrence’s writing but find some of the longer no