Bookbenchers: Mark Field MP

This week’s Bookbencher is Mark Field, MP for Cities of London and Westminster.

Which book’s on your bedside table at the moment?

Juliet Gardiner’s comprehensive tome, The Thirties: An Intimate History of Britain. I have become an avid reader of authors such as David Kynaston, Dominic Sandbrook and Peter Hennessy who have written some magisterial socio-political summaries of brief periods of post-war Britain.

Which book would you read to your children?

I have a son of three-and-a-half and a four-month-old daughter so I fear it is their tastes rather than mine that matter! I must confess that I have never been a great dog lover but the Hairy Maclary books are beautiful for young children and might inspire my offspring to be more canine friendly. As soon as I heard that the Revd W. Awdry’s Thomas the Tank Engine books (which I loved as a young boy) were apparently ‘too right wing’ on account of having too many middle class, male characters, I understood precisely why my young son, Frederick, has become such a keen adherent!

Which literary character would you most like to be?