It is difficult, if not impossible, to systematically identify ten booksthat have been influential over a professional lifetime, not least sincemany have probably exerted their influence in long-forgotten ways: part ofthat semantic sediment laid down by protracted reading (and conversation).However, I do know that George Orwell was the first serious writer whom Iread ‘of my own free will’ and I know that I would not wish to be withoutthe works of Anthony Burgess, Albert Camus, Bruce Chatwin, Don DeLillo,Graham Greene, Henning Mankell or W.G. Sebald. I can remember that books onBuddhism sustained me through senior house officer jobs in a number ofmedical specialties (trying to focus, single-mindedly, on the task in handrather than my tiredness or distraction), and I suspect that the metaphorsof my thought and speech had already been much influenced by exposure to theBible. Here, I focus on those books that have informed the way I think aboutpsychiatry right now and how it might be practised.