John Simpson / Features / Untitled Books

"When I'm in Iraq or Afghanistan, with unpleasant things happening around me, I don't want to read anything too difficult or nasty."

John Simpson

John Simpson is the BBC's World Affairs Editor and the author of Unreliable Sources: How the 20th Century was Reported.

About a week ago I finished reading Sir Walter Scott's The Antiquary. I've always wanted to read something by him, and never quite got round to it. I suppose I thought it was too forbidding; but not a bit of it. It was a real page-turner, even though the story is quite tame and moderate, and it was both surprisingly funny and humane. I loved it, and it kept a hold on my imagination for some days after I'd finished reading it: always an excellent sign.

At present I'm coming to the end of Evelyn Waugh's war trilogy Sword of Honour, which he put together from his three novels in 1965, shortly before he died. I suppose it's his greatest work: savage, as funny as anything he ever wrote, clear-sighted and beautifully, precisely written. I read it years ago, and didn't quite realise then that it's basically about the collapse of the old social system in Britain. It's deeply depressive, but wonderful.

The next book I'll read will be Patrick O'Brian's The Mauritius Command. When I'm in Iraq or Afghanistan, with unpleasant things happening around me, I don't want to read anything too difficult or nasty. O'Brian is gentle, insightful, amusing and deeply humane, even when he's writing about a battle. You need that in horrible places, I find.

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Unreliable Sources: How the 20th Century was Reported is published by Pan.

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Friday, 7 May, 2010