Cultural Life: Fatima Bhutto, writer

Books: Haifa Zangana's 'Dreaming of Baghdad', a lyrical and chilling memoir of imprisonment, activism and torture in Saddam's Iraq. Also tucked into my bag, which now weighs a ton, are 'Listening to Grasshoppers' by Arundhati Roy and Philip Pullman's 'The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ' and Alba Arikha's work, which I'm discovering and loving.

Television: 'True Blood' on repeat. And repeat. (I'm a recent 'Glee' addict, too.)

Films: My brother, a great friend and I just watched 'I Am Love'. My brother and I now think we can speak Italian. Our friend insists we cannot. 'Shutter Island' and 'Life after Wartime' are on my list of films to watch, though I'm more of a DVD than a cinema person. I saw a really awful film this weekend. I'm too embarrassed to reveal which one – that's how bad it was. Clearly, I shouldn't be allowed out to the cinema.

Music: Lots of Motown, but mainly Marvin Gaye and George Benson. Otherwise, whatever's playing on my iPod, which includes other greats like Tupac, Prince and the Buena Vista Social Club.

Fatima Bhutto will be speaking to the journalist Allegra Donn about her new book, 'Songs of Blood and Sword', published by Random House, at the Asia House Festival of Asian Literature on 5 May (Festivalofasianliterature.com)