1. W. G. Sebald’s The Rings of Saturn (translated by Michael Hulse) about an imaginary walking tour through Suffolk County is a work of imagination and enchantment. It’s the book to read when you wish to escape the banalities of reports, emails and everyday things.

2.When in the mood for self improvement pick up a copy of Alan de Botton’s How Proust Can Change Your Life (1998). If a book can be as charming as a person; this is it. To quote The Mail on Sunday: “...de Botton dissects what [Marcel Proust] had to say about friendship, reading, looking carefully, paying attention, taking your time, being alive and adds his own delicious commentary. The result is an intoxicating as it is wise….”

3. Peter Drucker’s The Practice of Management could be a public relations cheat sheet rather than a business book because of all the wise and useful things Drucker has to say about communications. Most important for business leaders is the distinction he makes between information (what you know) and communications (what you share).

4. Arthur Schopenhauer’s The Art of Always Being Right: Thirty Eight Ways to Win When You Are Defeated was written over a century ago. The prolific German philosopher, presents ploys to trump your opponent in an argument regardless of the facts. Sounds like the 19th century primer on spin. While I promote facts over spin, I enjoy this little book because it’s so clever. One trick calls to win by the use of jargon or gobbledygook. ‘If [your opponent] is secretly conscious of his own weakness and accustomed to hear much that he does not understand and to make as though he did, you can easily impose upon him by some serious fooling that sounds very deep or learned.”

5. Merlin Holland’s The Real Trial of Oscar Wilde is the definitive book about the great wit and self-proclaimed Lord of Language. Oscar Wilde’s grandson has written his study with the precision of a journalist and thoroughness of a historian who has finally completed the file. Holland’s account contains the transcript from the three trials. They remain so compelling after all these years that you’ll find yourself wanting to stop Wilde from speaking one more word in his brilliant but self-destructive replies.

6. Frost/Nixon is the film (DVD, April 09) based on Peter Morgan’s theatrical production of the interviews conducted by David Frost (Michael Sheen) and former President Richard Nixon (Frank Langella) in 1977. Frost brokered the deal himself and got Nixon to talk about his life, policies and of course Watergate. The movie, directed by Ron Howard, renewed interest in the actual verbal exchanges with the troubled 37th president.

7. Beg, borrow or download In a Sentimental Mood, the 1962 jazz standard with Duke Ellington (piano) and John Coltrane (alto saxophone). It’s everything great about life in a song.

8. Watch All About Eve, the elegantly edgy film which won six  Oscars for director-writer Joseph Mankiewicz, including best picture, best director and best screenplay. It gives a breathless account of the behind the scene intrigues of a group of theatrical personaities – all of them larger than life, and all of them masters of the art of talking back.