Childhood favourites and all-time classics: Mark Gatiss, Polly Walker, and Connor Finch share their favourite reads
For them, it's all about books, books, books
A bookshop has its own draw; the slightly musty smell of carpets mingled with the scent of old books, top notes of fresh ink and crisp new novels, and a woodiness which you’re never 100% sure the provenance of. Blend the nostalgia and comfort of an old school bookshop with a cosy crime drama and the razor sharp mind of Mark Gatiss and you’ve got U & alibi’s hit show Bookish.
The show, returning on 26th August with a brand new season, follows Gatiss and Bridgerton alum Polly Walker as couple Gabriel and Trottie Book (happily in their Lavender Marriage). They continue to help police solve crimes in 1946 London from the cosy interior of their beloved bookshop, along with newish recruit (and former petty criminal) Jack (played by Connor Finch) who is the lesser educated but just as curious foil to Book’s unorthodox intellect in a Pygmalion-esque story arc.
Ahead of the second season being released across the UK, we caught up with Mark Gatiss, Polly Walker, and Connor Finch to hear about their favourite books, from early childhood days up until the page turners which kept them entertained between shoots.
Shortlist: What was your first read? That one book that made you fall in love with literature and reading?
Mark Gatiss: Have you ever read the Very Hungry Caterpillar? [chuckles] No, my first read was Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. I was given it by Santa Claus when I was five – I didn't read it when I was five, but I remember everything about the getting of it. And then when I did read it, it blew my mind because there's a big twist and it sort of opened up to me the possibilities of stories. Still one of my favourites.
Polly Walker: Hmm, what’s the one where it's a poet that has kind of grotesque stories for children and something always horrible happens to them… Hilaire Belloc, that was it. That just blew my mind – terrified, but I loved it.
Connor Finch: I only sort of did what was necessary reading for a long, long time. But I remember when I was sort of getting ready to go and do the rounds at drama school, I was given the play Mojo and fell in love with it because the lovely Danny Mays [who also stars in Bookish] was in it. I had that for a long time and used that to do all the drama school auditions. That’s the one that comes to mind for me.
SL: How about your “re-read”? I don’t know if you guys are big re-readers, but do you have a book that you like to come back to and read again?
MG: Well, Sherlock Holmes is my comfort book. I often take it on journeys, but I don’t always read the whole story. The opening of certain stories just make me feel so nice, I don’t have to complete the whole thing.
PW: I’ve never read the Bible, I keep picking it up and trying to read that, but I don’t get very far.
CF: One I’ve read a few times which Mark put me onto because he was adamant that I should do it one day was the play Loot by Joe Orton. I read it a few times because it's sort of almost got that old school BBC comedy type, you know — it's tragic and it's still a drama. But I think the only book that I probably read more than once is Daisy Jones and the Six. I read that a couple of times because that was a great book.
SL: They did a great adaptation of that a couple of years back, I'm usually nervous of adaptations for books I loved, but they did a really good job. Do you guys prefer to read the book before watching a TV or film adaptation? Or are you not too fussed?
CF: I mean, a few years ago I did an adaptation, Everything I Know About Love and that book was everywhere. And it was quite hard to resist not reading it before doing it. So I ended up watching the series that I was in before reading the book. I think it's different if you know it's gonna be made into something, but if you don't, it's probably quite nice to start with the book.
MG: It depends, doesn’t it? The good thing is a lot of TV drama is a gateway into it. A lot of people will read something as a result of watching something, but equally by its very nature an adaptation is an adaptation. People hated the film of The Goldfinch, which is a beloved book, but that's because it should be sort of a 12 part series and you can't do that in a film. A lot of my favourites I first saw on TV – Jane Eyre, Hound of the Baskervilles. So it’s a great way in
SL: How about a new read? Either something you’ve discovered recently, or a new book on your radar to read next.
PW: Demon Copperhead, that’s mine
MG: I’ve just finished an amazing biography of Bertolt Brecht; I've just done a Brecht play in Stratford Upon Avon and I read it. Ingrid Oliver, who's in series two [of Bookish], gave me this biography, it's called the Life and Lives of Bertolt Brecht by John Fuege. As soon as I started it I absolutely couldn’t put it down, it’s a remarkable book. And, it changed my entire view of Brecht as a playwright.
PW: What did it change?
MG: Oh, well, he was a monster — 80 to 90% of his most famous work is not written by him and is mostly written by three or four extraordinary women in his life whom he totally erased from history. So that’s quite a whopper.
SL: I feel like we need a Netflix miniseries about it now...
MG: You wouldn't think it, but it would be an amazing series or film. What a life and what a life of lies and oddness. And everything we think of as 'Brechtian' is so much the product of lots of other people's minds. And he's become like the brand name for a kind of style.
CF: I read a book a long time a few years ago, Magnolia Parks, and I only found out recently that is like a whole universe of these books. And I was like, oh, so I've got a few of those to carry on with, but one, the author's Miranda July.
MG: She sounds like she’s in a Bond novel doesn’t she? Miranda July....
SL: Finally, what's your current read? Maybe it’s the scripts for Bookish S2, or it could be one that’s keeping your entertained in between interviews today...
MG: I’m reading Middlemarch (on my Kindle – it’s very dense) because I decided it’s time. It’s surprisingly funny. I understand why people struggle [with it], my friend said to me “I’ve tried three times”. The style is very long winded, but actually once you get into the meat of it, it's just about people and it's very familiar – the petty politics of a little town. And I was surprised how kind of sharp and funny it was. I mean, I’m only this much in [*index finger and thumb incredibly close together*] and it's a massive book so see me next year and I’ll see if I get to the end of it.
PW: I have one book on the go at the moment because it’s literally a paragraph and I can just about manage that, and that’s the Daily Stoic. And it's just a message, about stoicism, about approach and gaze but it gives me the perspective that I sometimes need at the end of a day, reminding you what you can affect and what you can’t. And it’s rather wonderful.
CF: I’m going away at the end of the month so I’ve got a book to read on holiday because I feel really behind that I haven’t read it yet, and that’s Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.
SL: Oh! You’re going to enjoy it!
CF: Yeah, I’m very excited to read it, it feels like another one of those books that everyone ended up talking about.
SL: Final quick question: are you guys physical book people or Kindle people? Or both
CF: Both.
PW: Physical.
MG: I like to have the physical, but I actually read the Kindle.
SL: And bookshops all the way?
MG: Exactly!
Bookish season 2 is available to stream from 26th August on U & Alibi, with all episodes of season one also streaming on NOW TV.
Skip the search — follow Shortlist on Google News to get our best lists, news, features and reviews at the top of your feeds!
