Who would the rest of the world vote for in your country's election?

A poem that says everything about why mashed-up things are more beautiful than straightforward things. Exactly what I think about culture …

If I started a new country, this would be our national anthem.

To cheer you up when you’re wondering why the whole world seems so selfish these days: it’s not true. Human beings are fundamentally empathic, and this book proves it.

A fascinating but very readable study of the personality type that tends to produce despotic governments. And it’s a free download.

This is a truly refreshing read in the current climate of inward-looking, backward-looking, put-up-a-wall-and-keep-out-the-foreigners selfishness. A wonderful guide to the ethical and practical issues of living in a multicultural world.

The only biography I’ve read that’s not only as good as a novel but actually as good as its subject’s novels.

I’m proud to say that my politics are neither left-wing, right-wing nor centrist, and I’m certainly no socialist, but you can’t fail to be touched by the goodness of the human spirit when you read this – and equally dismayed when you think about what it all led to.

A largely forgotten author, Hearn has always seemed to me to be the perfect model of cultural sensitivity and unprejudiced openness to new cultural experiences.

A fascinating journey into the overlap between neuroscience and music.

If you have children, don’t deny them Moomins. It’s gentle Nordic madness that will kindle their sense of magic.

Not a quick or easy read, but a masterful summary of the processes of globalization. Angry anti-globalists will find it makes them angrier, but they can always put it down.