Stephen Mangan: my five best books

Stephen Mangan's debut, Escape the Rooms (Scholastic £6.99), for children aged 9+ and with drawings by his sister, the illustrator and designer Anita Mangan, is out now.

1. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Lewis Carroll (1865)

Aged ten, I was cast as the Mock Turtle in our school play and, like the old pro I already was, I did my research and read the book. It blew my mind. The odd, funny, upsidedown world of Alice was so eccentric, strange and slightly frightening that I was hooked. Plus, I had a crush on the Queen of Hearts (the girl in our play, not the one in the book). A hormonal and literary explosion that left me altered forever

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Penguin £5.99; The Week Bookshop £5.99

2. Great Expectations

Charles Dickens (1861)

A wonderful, gripping story of crime and guilt, crushed ambition and ruined fortunes, snobbery and anxiety, with a spectacular cast of characters and a beautiful ending. Near perfection.

Penguin £6.99; The Week Bookshop £2

3. Don’t Point That Thing At Me

Kyril Bonfiglioli (1972)

A riot of gags, one-liners and great characters. There’s half a plot in there too, I think. A book that’s fantastic company because, like the best people, it’s exciting, clever, witty, disreputable and occasionally unpleasant.

Penguin £8.99; The Week Bookshop £6.99

4. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾

Sue Townsend (1982)

This made me realise that books could speak directly to me and to my world (obsessing over my forlorn love life, writing bad poetry, harbouring over-earnest convictions). As an adult, you realise Sue brilliantly reflects what’s happening in wider politics and society through the prism of this ordinary household in middle England. As a kid, you laugh at Adrian’s obsession with the length of his “thing”.

Penguin £6.99; The Week Bookshop £5.99

5. If This Is A Man

Primo Levi (1947)

An astonishing account of the author’s time in Auschwitz, written, he said, “with love and rage”. He finds humanity in arguably the bleakest episode in human history. Almost unbearable.

Abacus £9.99; The Week Bookshop £7.99