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Chris Davis

What the movers and shakers are reading
Simon Harrall
Head of sales, Scottish Provident International
I mainly prefer to read biographies. For example, Israeli military leader Moshe Dayan's Story of My Life  is an enlightened book. Considering what is going on in the Middle East,  the book provides some insights as to how difficult it was to overcome the deep-rooted mistrust and hatred.
Dayan's career is probably unequalled in Israel's short history. A hugely successful military leader who developed a legendary status, he successfully crossed over to politics and held several highly influential government posts before he left politics.
I also found Douglas Bader's Reach for the Sky   a hugely inspirational book. I recommend it to friends because it highlights what can be done if you refuse to take no for an answer.
Bader's determination to overcome adversity, after losing his legs in a flying accident in 1931, shows just what can be achieved if you set goals and have the  will to pursue them. In spite of opposition from the RAF, he eventually persuaded the air force to let him rejoin the service at the start of the second world war and he fought in the Battle of Britain. He was  taken prisoner in 1941 after being forced to bail out over France and was later imprisoned in the infamous Colditz Castle.
A book I would certainly recommend to anyone interested in British history is acclaimed biographer Alison Weir's  Elizabeth the Queen,  which covers the life of Elizabeth I and goes to the heart of Tudor England at its most politically unstable time. It also makes you realise how religiously tolerant England was during the period. Indeed, it was Elizabeth who said 'religion is for your conscience'.
No matter how much you are in control of your emotions, I would be surprised if anyone could read foreign correspondent Fergal Keane's Letter to Daniel - Despatches from the Heart   without shedding a tear. The book is a brilliant piece of writing addressed to his newborn son, combined with the reflections and memories of a man in his role as a foreign correspondent, then working in Hong Kong, but also a father. I read it on a flight, which seemed to take no time at all because I was so engrossed in my book.
The book delves deeply into Keane's feelings about becoming a father, but also about his past, about loss and the failure of dreams, about the pain of different children he met along the roads of war, and about his father and how alcohol had taken him from him.
The next book I am looking forward to reading is a biography by my  father who left the  RAF to become a mercenary pilot in Oman in 1971. Not much is known about the bloody conflict that lasted nearly 10 years and unofficially involved many members of the British army. Often referred to as the Secret War, it lasted from 1963 until 1974 and was sort of the winding up of the British Empire.  His first 17,000 words are simply brilliant.



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