A lot of the practical stuff would be covered by The SAS Survival handbook, by Wiseman, which is the only one of that kind of book that I have actually used things from and have returned to from time to time. It is sitting on the shelf in front of me, in fact, just above a couple of Simon Schamas and next to The Encyclopedia of Comic Characters (I haven’t organised anything since moving house).

The Lord of the Rings would be my next. One of the tiny number of books that I have re-read multiple times, and would happily do so again. It is the only book that has left me feeling able to smell the air of its world.

The third is more difficult to choose, but I’ll say The Complete Works of Jane Austen - because I have never read any of them, but am certain that I will enjoy them and she is, of course, another British author - given that this is British Books.

If ‘complete works’ are considered a cheat, then maybe Mallory’s Morte D’Arthur, which I have read a loooong time ago, but know that I get far, far more from now.