Jason Forbes, Prue Leith, Sharleen Spiteri and Ben Willbond share their favourite books

8 December 2021

This week's book choices on Between the Covers span continents and centuries, as we hear tales of Medieval England, pay a dark visit to a perfume factory in 18th century Paris, go fishing in the Arctic Circle, and meet an epic and lovable character who is “a bit of an idiot.”

Each week we reveal the favourite reads brought in by Sara Cox guests on BBC Two's intimate book club. Here we discover what keeps Jason Forbes, Prue Leith, Sharleen Spiteri and Ben Willbond reading.

Episode 5 - Favourite books from our guests

The cover says: Every life is both ordinary and extraordinary, but Logan Mountstuart's contains more than its fair share of both. As a writer who finds inspiration with Hemingway in Paris and Virginia Woolf in London, as a spy recruited by Ian Fleming and betrayed in the war and as an art-dealer in '60s New York, Logan mixes with the movers and shakers of his times. But as a son, friend, lover and husband, he makes the same mistakes we all do in our search for happiness.

Ben says: I can honestly pick up any one of William Boyd's novels, he is a very deft storyteller. I love this one, particularly, because he's created this character, Logan Mountstuart, and told his life story through journals.

It takes one life, and shows how your attitudes and personality changes, as you go from youth to old age. He very cleverly covers what life is... this journey is unique to every one of us. He's created this really flawed character who makes bad decisions. You're rooting for him, but you're also aware... he's a bit of an idiot.

It's epic because it spans an entire life. He hangs out with the Windsors, he's sent on a spy mission by Ian Fleming. Wow. He's researched it so well and then thought, “I'm going to have real fun with this character, and I'll make him very, very human.” Perfect.

Jason summarises The Canterbury Tales: It's about a group of pilgrims who are travelling from London to Canterbury to go and visit the shrine of St Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral and, to pass the time, as they are literally cantering, they decide to have a competition to tell different stories, and the winner will get a free meal at the Tabard Inn in Southwark.

Jason says: I think it appeals to our human desire to tell each other stories. It's the ultimate example of a bunch of people coming together and sharing stories with each other.

The stories have really profound philosophical questions. There are also silly things that stuck with me when I was a kid, like people sticking their bums out of windows and farting in each other's faces.

I love the language, but that's because I'm a bit of a nerd. You'd struggle to find anyone who wasn't fascinated by the stories. You could read them in translation, but I love the language - one of my party tricks was to recite. It always gets me kicked out of parties...

Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote, The droghte of March hath perced to the roote, And bathed every veyne in swich licour, Of which vertu engendred is the flour, Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth, Inspired hath in every holt and heeth.

I could go on, but...!

The cover says: A dazzling work about the restorative power of nature and finding joy in simple pleasures. It is often said there is more to the experience of fishing than the mere catching of fish, and in this evocative, wide-ranging memoir he explores the delights and mysteries of one of mankind’s most ancient pursuits.

Prue says: I am a keen fisherwoman. I'm a salmon fisher. You have to be really intelligent to do trout fishing, and very skilful. Salmon are stupid, they just decide whether they'll get hooked or not.

With fishing you're on your own in a river, you're miles from anybody else, and you're just standing there, listening to the water and casting. David Profumo is a really good writer. This book is all his anecdotes from fishing all over the world; it's part-travelogue, part-memoir, a lot of funny stuff about fishing, and I just love it.

The cover says: An acclaimed bestseller and international sensation, Patrick Suskind’s classic novel provokes a terrifying examination of what happens when one man’s indulgence in his greatest passion - his sense of smell - leads to murder.

Sharleen says: I was given this book by Ally, our guitarist. And I started it while we were waiting to go on Spanish TV, and I was going 'I just want to keep reading the book'.

It's fantastic. Scent is so evocative, it can literally take you literally to a place, to a time. From the moment the book starts, you feel that you are in Paris on the streets. It is about a boy who is born on the streets of Paris, and scent is such an important part of his life that he wants to be a perfumier.

Because of the name, Perfume, you think, "it's going to be lovely and gentle." But it's not. To kill something off, to capture the scent, it doesn't stay, and that's what's really dark about it. It twists and turns - I absolutely loved this book and I've read it over and over, I don't ever get bored of it.

• Write around the World: What happened when Richard E. Grant visited the setting of Perfume?