Zeb Zoanes’ selection of 5 books

He comments that it was impossibly hard to choose: ‘ask me tomorrow and it would be a different set’.

At the October 2025 graduation ceremonies Zeb was made Chancellor of the University of Suffolk. More details here

Mapp and Lucia by E. F. Benson

This is probably the book I have revisited most over the years, like calling upon a dear old friend. The richness of the characters, the deliciousness of the rivalry — anyone who has ever had any involvement with committees will have come across their own Mrs Emmeline ‘Lucia’ Lucas or Miss Elizabeth Mapp.  Indeed, I often refer to the small London neighbourhood of De Beauvoir in which I live as ’Tilling’, the town in which Benson's story takes place.

Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas

I was introduced to Under Milk Wood at high school and was captivated by Thomas’ dreamlike use of language: his onomatopoeia and alliteration. I used to listen in the dark to a cassette of the Richard Burton recording and imagine myself in the little coastal town of Llareggub, floating in and out of the houses, witnessing the lives and secrets of its inhabitants.  It is a work of literary magic and there is nothing else quite like it.

Foxes Unearthed by Lucy Jones

When I was writing the first Gaspard the Fox book, I absorbed myself in books about foxes as I wanted to include a page of ‘Foxy Facts’ at the back of the book. Foxes Unearthed was riveting.  It is not only packed full of fascinating information about foxes themselves — did you know they can hear a watch ticking at 40 metres away and have whiskers on their knees?  It also charts, explains and readdresses the ages-old literary and cultural portrayal of foxes as ‘cunning.’ I thoroughly recommend it.

BBC Pronouncing Dictionary of British Names edited by G. E. Pointon

This reference book never leaves my side.  As a newsreader at BBC Radio 4 we had a copy on the newsreader’s desk so well-thumbed that it was falling apart. When I was often giving tours of Broadcasting House to friends, I would always include a visit to The Pronunciation Unit in an office tucked behind a lift shaft on the 7th Floor. It is staffed by the most wonderful team of linguists whose job it is to research and advise journalists and presenters on how to pronounce anything: from world leaders to Hawaiian volcanoes.  In the 1970s the BBC’s Head of Pronunciation, Graham Pointon — who was still at the corporation when I joined — had the clever idea of contacting public libraries, post offices and police stations the length and breadth of the UK to compile this definitive guide to how to pronounce every place or established family name in Britain ‘as nearly as possible represents the usage of the inhabitants of the place or of the family bearing the name listed’. Now that I am at Classic FM it is still extremely useful in making sure I correctly pronounce where somebody is texting my show from. As we know in East Anglia, one can never assume anything from a place name: Wymondham and Happisburgh are excellent examples.

Alec Guiness by Piers Paul Read

This is the book in which I am currently absorbed. My father encouraged me to watch old films, which were always on television when I was a child. I adored anything starring Alastair Sim, Margaret Rutherford, Terry Thomas, Peter Sellers and then I discovered the Ealing comedies and Alec Guinness. These films shaped my sense of humour and, as I started to realise that I wanted to become an actor, Guinness was the type of character actor I aspired to become. I wrote to him when I was 16, careful not to mention Star Wars, which I knew he was tired of being associated with and within the week a neatly handwritten envelope arrived at my parents’ house in Lowestoft, containing a card on which Sir Alec wished me luck with my career. It meant the world to me … and still does.  This year marks 25 years since Alec Guinness’ death and it has long been an ambition to perform a one man show about his life. I’ll be touring ’Two Halves of Guinness’ early next year and am currently deep in research.  Piers Paul Read was given full access to Guinness’ papers with the blessing of his wife and son — it is a fascinating portrait of one of our greatest actors.