Michael Palin's 6 best books

Michael Palin is an English comedian, actor, writer and television presenter best known for being one of the members of the comedy group Monty Python and for his travel documentaries. His second novel, The Truth, is out now in the UK.

One of his six best books, as told to the Daily Express:

If This Is A Man (US title: Survival in Auschwitz)
by Primo Levi

The most significant book about the concentration camps. It’s not just well written, it is written by a survivor and shows the grimness.

He has an interesting attitude to apportioning the blame and is not as clear-cut as you might think.

Once you have a culture of cruelty, he says, everyone gets drawn in.

The best book I have read on the subject.

Read about another book on the list.

Survival in Auschwitz is on Eve Claxton's top ten list of memoirs and autobiographies and Gail Caldwell's list of five groundbreaking memoirs.

--Marshal Zeringue