Hastings-based Maria McErlane is best known for her regular appearances as an agony aunt on Graham Norton’s former Virgin Radio and BBC Radio 2 shows. She trained as an actor but has performed as a stand-up comedian, appeared in many comedy shows and written columns for the Sunday Times and Esquire magazine. Her memoir, Bumps In the Road: Life and Adventure in Bite-Size Chunks, is out now in paperback (Great Northern Books, £10.99)
The book I loved as a child
As a child I assiduously borrowed HE Todd’s Bobby Brewster books from my local library. Todd actually came to the library to give a talk. Much excitement, then slight boredom.
The book that inspired me as a teenager
Emile Zola’s Therese Raquin. I adored the beauty of the language and it impressed upon me, at a young age, the dangers of a claustrophobic marriage.
The book I’ve never finished
I found the experimental style of Finnegans Wake by James Joyce impenetrable.
The book that moved me most
I read I’m Not Stiller by Max Frisch at a time of great sadness. It’s about a prisoner in a small Swiss town who opens the novel by claiming he has been jailed under false charges and the wrong identity. The confusion of identity resonated at that time.
The books I’m reading now
The Philosophers in 90 Minutes series by Paul Strathern. There are 28 titles and I’ve whizzed through Hegel, Kant, Descartes, Hume, Plato and Aristotle. They’re a great way to understand philosophy without getting bored. I like to keep two books on the go, so the other book sharing my bedside table is The Collected Stories by Lorrie Moore. Each is a wry and witty joy just before sleep – Chekhovian in a tragic-comic way. She is a master of the short-story form.
