The poet, translator and editor of Nemo’s Almanac is astonishingly well-read; if books do furnish a room, this man’s memory palace will be vast and labyrinthine… With a book habit that began in his childhood, he writes of his queasiness when emptying his shelves at Queen’s College, Cambridge, and the incompleteness of living with his books boxed in storage. The poet’s essentials include some happy surprises: Proust sits alongside Jilly Cooper; Enid Blyton, Ray Bradbury, Ngaio Marsh and William Blake keep good company. A formidable and deeply enjoyable primer for enriching a library and a life.