Non-Fiction: Michael Lewis’s Liar’s Poker – nothing better prepared me for the trading culture on Wall Street than this screamer.

(Runner Up: Joseph Heller’s Catch-22. If you’ve been in the military you can’t help but have a wry smile throughout this entire book at the very least. More ironic than laugh-out loud).

Fiction: PJ O’Rourke’s books always give me the giggles and I hear Derb on PG Wodehouse, but I’ve got to give the nod to George MacDonald Frasers inimitable rogue General Sir Harry Flashman, and his randy misadventures in Victoria’s reign. If you only read one do Flashman and the Great Game. I’d go over to the Fraser’s cottage on the Isle of Man and make tea, cut his grass, do whatever so that he could keep producing more Flashman books in this riotous series.