The need for clear and effective communication has never been more evident than in these past 12 months.

Not only do we need a single, straightforward message for a community to engage in a common goal, but it's also important to keep heads clear and emotions in tap when dealing with something threatening and unfamiliar.

There is a great skill in presenting complicated or difficult information in a palatable and accessible way and the two books I've selected this week help to highlight this. I hope you'll be able to take a look at the titles below.

This week I was also reminded of the power, comfort and pleasure to be found in the succinct, carefully chosen words crafted by the poet.

'Time to be slow' by the late Irish poet and thinker, John O'Donohue was sent to me by a friend, and has remained with me in the past few days.

It begins

This is the time to be slow,
Lie low to the wall
Until the bitter weather passes.

You can listen to the poem being read by Fergal Keane here. He selected it last spring in a series on Radio 4's Today programme where well-known people shared their favourite poems of comfort and hope.

It has also been included in Poems on the Underground. You can read it here. Whenever I travelled across London on the Tube, it was always a huge delight to see a poem instead of an advert in the hoarding above our heads. Find out more about the initiative here. Buy the last collection here, or look at poems that have been selected specially to give us courage and hope for this new year here.

Thank you for reading.