Alan Johnston explains how Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell inspired him to become a journalist - and taught him some dark truths about politics. Show more

Potter and writer Edmund de Waal explains how Primo Levi's book The Wrench inspired him, with its praise of craftsmanship and creation. Show more

Bernardine Evaristo describes how Ntozake Shange's poetry collection For Colored Girls... inspired her to work in experimental theatre and ultimately find her voice as a novelist. Show more

Scientist Colin Blakemore praises a lesser-known work by Charles Darwin, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. Show more

Academic Mona Siddiqui explores her affection for Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, explaining how it spoke over the centuries directly to her own experience. Show more

Space scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock on how Chocky by John Wyndham was pivotal in overcoming her dread of reading. Show more

Former England cricketer and now writer for The Times Ed Smith explains how Simon Gray's The Smoking Diaries liberated him as a wordsmith. Show more

Poet and musician Musa Okwonga explains how Shakespeare's Othello mirrored his experience of isolation as a young black British-Ugandan in a mainly white environment. Show more

Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner on how Amos Oz's In the Land of Israel changed her feelings towards the country and allowed her to be both in love with and critical of her homeland. Show more

Journalist Julian Pettifer explains how Rachel Carson's The Silent Spring turned him into an environmentalist. Show more