WHAT BOOK would comedian and author SHAPARAK KHORSANDI take to a desert island?

. . . are you reading now?

I am just about to finish Trespasses by Louise Kennedy. What exquisite writing.

As a child, I was a devotee of Joan Lingard’s Kevin and Sadie series, about a Catholic boy and Protestant girl falling in love [it’s set in the 1970s during the Northern Ireland conflict], and Kennedy’s book took me back to that heart-breaking world, which had so gripped me when I was young.

It still astounds me that we were never taught anything about Irish history at school.

I like to read non-fiction at night, and my current bedside book is The Meaning Of Things by A. C. Grayling. 

I love his writing, but I’m also reading it to keep up with my son, who is developing a deep interest in philosophy.

Comedian and author Shaparak Khorsandi would take Sue Townsend’s Adrian Mole series in its entirety to a desert island because re-reading the books is like visiting an old, neurotic friend

. . . would you take to a desert island?

I’m going to cheat and say Sue Townsend’s Adrian Mole series in its entirety. 

I once went out with the most chaotic and unsuitable guy for three years, just because he so reminded me of the character.

I love Adrian Mole because he is Alan Partridge — but with more empathy. Both are characters I will never tire of.

I feel much more tender towards Adrian, though, as I have watched him grow up. 

His obsession with his image, bitter tendencies and adorable lack of backbone — not to mention his terrible decisions to paint his walls black as a teen and buy the Rat Wharf flat as an adult — are hilarious.

The Adrian Mole books are ones I re-read endlessly, because they are like visiting an old, neurotic friend — so they would be perfect to take away if I am going to be stranded.

. . . first gave you the reading bug?

‘The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So we sat in the house. All that cold, cold wet day.’

I still know Dr Seuss’ The Cat In The Hat by heart. As a child, I couldn’t believe such mayhem and naughtiness could exist — nor that two small children could be left alone in the house to do what they wanted all day. Lucky things.

SHAPARAK Shaparak still knows Dr Seuss’ The Cat In The Hat by heart

I read constantly as a child, to the point that I suffered if my parents dragged me out of a fictional world to do something stupid like go to school.

We went to the library all the time, and I could spend entire Saturdays there, reading everything from ghost stories to gerbil care. 

The library was to me what the internet is now to my children.

. . . left you cold?

I am sad to say I was never able to get through Tolkien’s The Lord Of The Rings. I tried it regularly as a child, but could never get into it.

I still feel sad about it as I know I am missing out somehow, but it overwhelmed me every time.

• Scatter Brain by Shaparak Khorsandi is out now (Ebury, £16.99).