Listmania!
Books to help rediscover the English language
Essential English: For Journalists, Editors and Writers (Pimlico)Essential English: For Journalists, Editors and Writers (Pimlico) by Harold Evans
Buy new: £7.94 / Used from: £6.90
The Bible on English for writers and editors. Reads like an entertaining and humourous novel and still tells you all you need to know about using English.
Cassell Guide to Written EnglishCassell Guide to Written English by James Aitchison
Buy used from: £2.01
Excellent, succinct but comprehensive book on the English language.
English for JournalistsEnglish for Journalists by Wynford Hicks
Buy used from: £3.70
First rate crash course in English grammar and punctuation for Journalists. The whole series deserves to become standard text.
Writing Feature Articles: A Practical Guide to Methods and Markets (Focal Press Journalism)Writing Feature Articles: A Practical Guide to Methods and Markets (Focal Press Journalism) by Brendan Hennessy
Buy used from: £1.76
Takes English into the market and shows you how to make money. Very good work book in a very good series.
Strange Places, Questionable PeopleStrange Places, Questionable People by John Simpson
Buy new: £5.95 / Used from: £0.01
John Simpsons anecdotes are excellent for preparing any budding writer for the political realities of the media industry. This is his best and freshest work.
The Granta Book of Reportage (Journalism)The Granta Book of Reportage (Journalism)
Buy used from: £0.01
Think that freelance foreign correspondent work is glamorous? Read this and think again.
Scots Law for JournalistsScots Law for Journalists by Bruce McKain
Buy new: £32.52 / Used from: £16.75
Even if your English, this is worth reading. There is a lot of common ground in the law. This is clear and comprehensive
Reporting for Journalists (Media Skills)Reporting for Journalists (Media Skills) by Chris Frost
Buy new: £13.49 / Used from: £10.99
Want to turn writing into a workable craft? Get this book
Mother Tongue: The English LanguageMother Tongue: The English Language by Bill Bryson
Buy new: £8.09 / Used from: £0.01
Bill Bryson's irreverant but scholarly and valuable look at English language development. Well worth a look
Troublesome WordsTroublesome Words by Bill Bryson
Buy new: £6.99 / Used from: £2.30
Important companion to Mother Tongue
The Prince (Penguin Classics)The Prince (Penguin Classics) by Niccolo Machiavelli
Buy used from: £0.01
Shows how politics is almost unchanged down through the ages.Great underpinning to understand psychology of statecraft
The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956 (Perennial Classic.)The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956 (Perennial Classic.) by Aleksandr Isaevich Solzhenitsyn
Buy used from: £19.95
Its a novel, its a biography, its what stark, hard feature writing is about. If you can deal with hard, true reality in the world beyond TV, buy this.
Pity the Nation: Lebanon at WarPity the Nation: Lebanon at War by Robert Fisk
Buy new: £8.36 / Used from: £5.19
Real old school Journalist reportage. This guy is not afraid to get bombed and beaten to say what must be said. Not a stylist but straight honest and accesible.
The Magazines Handbook (Media Practice)The Magazines Handbook (Media Practice) by Jenny McKay
Buy used from: £9.69
This book gives you all the lingo, practice and technicality that you could ask for in a non-textbook, easily digestible style.
The Oxford Companion to English LiteratureThe Oxford Companion to English Literature by Margaret Drabble
Buy used from: £2.99
Expensive but worth it if you want to get behind your reading and dig deep.
Survival in AuschwitzSurvival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi
Buy used from: £0.04
Primo Levi's work is a crucial and terrible necessity to fight dreadful revisionist history that would say that the holocaust did not happen. Read and learn
The Art of Fiction: Illustrated from Classic and Modern TextsThe Art of Fiction: Illustrated from Classic and Modern Texts by David Lodge
Buy new: £5.98 / Used from: £2.46
Want to write fiction? Read this.....
The Practice of Writing: Essays,Lectures,Reviews and A DiaryThe Practice of Writing: Essays,Lectures,Reviews and A Diary by David Lodge
Buy used from: £4.94
....And this