Never underestimate the power of a good book. It could take you to far away places where you are fighting monsters, Vikings or mafia bosses. You could fall in love with an exotic, beautiful, insanely rich character who loves you back despite your bad habits and expanding midriff. You could travel back in time to ancient Egypt, Tudor England or Nazi Germany and still have time to pop down to the pub with your mates. You could go on a profound philosophical journey or find you have developed the skills of an SAS special forces veteran.
The fact is that books define who we are. Each book we read leaves an impression on our personality and outlook to life. They sow seeds that germinate in our minds and form the foundations from which our lives blossom and flourish.
As such I have listed ten books that I have read on my journey through life and made me who I am. Some of these books may surprise you as few would claim to be masterpieces, but each has had a profound impact on my development as a person.
Janet and John: Off to Play.
I don’t believe I actually read this book in the traditional sense. But I had memorised every word of this 1960s classic while I was still in nappies having secretly gate-crashed my elder brother’s reading lessons. My parents never tired of showing off my ‘reading skills’ to astonished guests as a party trick. By the one hundredth show, I could read Janet and John like Laurence Olivier would perform Hamlet at the Theatre Royal. That experience germinated my love of reading that never went away. I would devour books by the truckload for the next fifty years.
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
I read Nineteen Eighty-Four as a school assignment. What were they thinking? Kids should not be exposed to Orwell’s nightmare vision at such a tender age. Or perhaps they should, because I was both riveted and deliciously horrified by his bleak vision of a communist totalitarian Britain. I could not put George Orwell’s brilliant novel down and it left me with a lifelong revulsion of political extremism.
River God by Wilbur Smith
Wilbur Smith does not win many awards for literary merit, but he certainly knows how to churn out the ripsnorters. I was hooked on Wilbur Smith at the tender age of fourteen. Wilbur’s heroes are hard drinking, tough, ‘real men’ from the John Wayne mould. He could grab you by the scruff of the neck and hurl you into nineteenth century Africa. So vivid were his scenes that you would believe that a Zulu spear was flying towards you with your name on it. His best book, River God transported me into Ancient Egypt so effectively that I never really emerged. I have had a love affair with all things Egyptian ever since.
Three Cheers for Me by Donald Jack
The average life expectancy of a World War One fighter pilot was only six weeks. Yet Canadian author Donald Jack made that terrible historical backdrop ‘laugh out loud’ funny with a series of novels about Airman Bartholomew Bandy. And I really do mean laugh out loud. For weeks I would annoy my fellow London commuters with loud guffaws, snorts and chuckles. It took two weeks for the sequels to arrive from the local bookshop and the feeling of delicious anticipation while I waited impatiently taught me the power that a well written book can have on a receptive reader.
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Wasn’t Dickens the crusty Victorian writer that wrote about poverty, pick pockets and social inequality? Yes he was, but he also wrote this exquisitely entrancing story about young Pip and his journey to adulthood and respectability. Dickens’ easy prose flows from the pages like gossamer silk from a goddess and when I had finished, I felt that I had made a new friend. I could imagine myself sitting down with him in a cosy ninteenth century pub chatting about football, London weather, Brexit and Jack the Ripper. Dickens taught me about the timelessness of good writing and the connection we all feel with the characters of a powerful story regardless of era, culture or genre.
The Firm by John Grisham
Dammit I want to be just like John Grisham! He emerged from a similar corporate background as me and made lawyers sexy. In doing so, he sold a gazillion books and is now regarded as one of the most successful authors ever. I’m not jealous at all even though the smug grin he wears on his bio picture at the back of his books seems to be saying ‘Hepworth, I outsell you a million to one.’ Jealousy aside, The Firm was a stunning book. It was a genre defining tome and had me gripped from the first paragraph to page 432. Grisham absolutely nailed it with The Firm.
My mission is to outsell Grisham with my Sam Jardine novels. Simples! Sell books, buy yacht, order Rolls Royce and throw wild party.
The Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton
I have read The Faraway Tree four times over, once to each of my children. It’s the story of three spolit kids who discover a magical tree that takes them to imaginary lands such as the Land of Take-What-You-Want and the Land of Do-As-You-Please. The book is full of absurd characters including Mr Moon-Face, Dame Washalot and the Saucepan Man. Enid Blyton was obviously on speed, LSD or crack cocaine when she wrote such nonsense. My four children must have been on the same stuff, because they were entranced. Enid’s ability to get inside the heads of children was extraordinary. The magical bond that formed between myself and my kids while I was reading her crazy adventures to them at bedtime was something that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.
Without Remorse by Tom Clancy
Just occasionally a guy just has to read a piece of trash that pushes all the right toxic masculinity buttons and there is no better example than Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse. It is the male antidote to the fairer sex’s Fifty Shades of Grey. Although Clancy can spend fifty pages describing the inner workings of a nuclear bomb that is seconds away from turning London or New York into radioactive dust, Without Remorse is his finest moment. It is a vengeance novel that describes how the hero tracks down and obliterates the baddies in the most ingenious and gruesome ways. A brilliant read. Now I’ve got that out of my system, where did I put my Tolstoy novel?
The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell
One day, I would like to shake Mr. Cornwell by the hand and thank him for many hours of pleasure his historical novels have given me. His vibrant writing style and colourful characters places his readers right in the front line of the shield wall defending England against the heathen Vikings or the Duke of Wellington’s thin red line against the imperious French. Best of all was The Last Kingdom. His masterpiece made all things Viking fashionable again for the first time since Alfred burnt the cakes in the year 878. Bravo Bernard Cornwell.
The Sleepwalker Legacy by Christopher Hepworth
The best book in the world. 😉Enough said. Grab a copy here and wipe the smirk off John Grisham’s face.
Honourable mentions
Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome; The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis; A Man in Full by Tom Wolfe; The Odessa File by Frederick Forsyth; Past Caring by Robert Goddard; Riotous Assembly by Tom Sharpe; The Alchemist by Peter James; Not Dead Enough by Peter James; The Go-Between by L.P.Hartley; Notes From a Small Island by Bill Bryson; The Last Oracle by Christopher Hepworth!
