Shirley Anne Field: My six best books
ACTRESS Shirley Anne Field, 72, starred in a string of post-war British film classics including Peeping Tom and The Entertainer.
Her best known film, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, is reissued by the BFI on DVD and available now.
Oliver Twist
by Charles Dickens
Penguin, £6.99
As a child growing up in a very strict religious institution in Lancashire, one of the few books I was allowed to read was Oliver Twist which I was given for attending Sunday School every week. I used to sit and cry because he was worse off than all the people around me and we were pretty badly off.
The Client
by John Grisham
Arrow, £7.99
I know some people consider Grisham a bit lightweight but I think this is a terrific page turner about a fight for justice. Sometimes people unfairly look down on authors just because they’re popular. It was of course turned into a great film.
Notes From An Exhibition
by Patrick Gale
HarperPerennial, £7.99
I’m currently reading a brilliant novel by one of Britain’s finest living writers. It tells the story of an artist and mother of four, who’s haunted by various demons, who is found dead -- and her Quaker husband’s search for the truth behind her death.
The Moon’s a Balloon
by David Niven
Penguin, £8.99
A wonderfully funny book that always makes me laugh. I worked with David as a teenager and he used to give me a lift home from the studio which was a wonderfully gracious thing for a film star to do for a 17-year-old with a bit part in a film. A very sweet man.
About A Boy
by Nick Hornby
Penguin, £7.99
I’ve very fond of this book, which was also turned into an excellent film starring Hugh Grant. The story of the relationship between man and boy is so sweet, and sensitively written, that it makes you realise how wonderful it is to have a child around you.
A Short Walk from Harrods
by Dirk Bogarde
Out of print
I love the novels and memoirs of Dirk Bogarde who was every inch as good a writer as an actor in my opinion. This is a very touching, very personal memoir by a man of great courage and dignity who I admired tremendously. Perhaps his finest moment as a writer.