Annie Nightingale: Books that changed my life

This classic was my mother’s favourite. She read it to me when I was about five and it became my first favourite book.

I was enchanted by the stark, scary, black-and-white illustrations and I identified with the gutsy princess—an only child like me. It’s about bravery and loyalty, and it’s full of symbolism.

When I was waiting to film an eclipse on a mountain in Chile, it took me back to Princess Irene waiting for her great-great-grandmother to appear in the moonlight.

This is the hair-raising, hilarious autobiography by Julia Phillips, the first female producer to win an Oscar, for The Sting in 1974.

She had a very wild life, hanging out with Hollywood movie stars. I’ve read it so many times, the pages have almost fallen out. It shows how hard it is for a woman to be taken seriously in an all-male industry, and that chimed with me.

I’d have loved to meet her, but she died young. (Maybe we wouldn’t have got on; she could be very scathing.) I’m hoping to make a documentary about her with Radio 4.

This is another book by an amazing woman who broke through the glass ceiling.

The author is chief operating officer at Facebook, and I empathised with her descriptions of her failures and struggles to get to the top in a very aggressive, male world.

Her message is to believe in yourself and give it your all.

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