My Favourite Author

I think it would be very difficult to give a favourite author of all. I agree with Lorraine about Anne Tyler. Lorraine introduced me to her books and I have been very impressed. She catches the heartache in ordinary life and also has a great sense of humour.

Some of my other favourite author's are

Leo Tolstoy - who I wrote about at college. I read his three full length novels and his shorter fiction. I have never been disappointed. He can describe and evoke his scenes and characters with great skill

Evelyn Waugh - a stylist par excellence - very funny and can catch you by suprise with something remarkably poignant


Joyce Cary - I loved his book Mr Johnson

Henry Green - quite short novels with an extraordinary syntax and use of words.

Lewis Grassic Gibbon - I loved the first part of the Scots Quair trilogy - Sunset Song - wonderfully atmospheric

Barry Unsworth - Sacred Hunger - must be one of the best ever Booker winners. Utterly compelling from start to finish.

Marcel Proust - his great novel of memory is one of the most adult books I have ever encountered. The most profound analysis, honesty and calmness in the face of humanity's foibles and ever changing needs and desires.

Thomas Hardy - adored Jude the Obscure and Tess of the D'Ubervilles. Unforgettable characters and stories that strike at the depths of the heart.

Samuel Richardson - his mighty epistolary novel - Clarissa. Tremendous depth of feeling and unrelenting depiction of tyranny and hypocrisy

Victor Hugo - Notre Dame de Paris - searing romantic masterpiece. Masterly storytelling



Ellie I am interested in your choices. Someone else mentioned Douglas Coupland to me. I shall almost certainly try David Mitchell sometime.

My favourite author

My favourite author is Anne Tyler. I first read her the summer after I graduated from university and spent the long journeys to my first job in Tooting working my way through all of her novels. I now buy her new novels when they come out in hardback and am trying to collect first uk editions of all of them. I have a signed one and her handwriting is just how I expected it would be.

The reason I think I love her books so much is that she writes about the sort of people you pass in the street but makes their lives extraordinary. Her characters usually belong to large eccentric families and they get on each others nerves and make a mess of things and don't always sort these messes out. She is also very good on small details and describes things other authors don't notice. When I read her I believe that my life could be the subject of a novel too.

One day I hope to visit Baltimore, Mayland where all of her novels are set.

Favourite Author

Well, after reading Ellie's distress message, I thought it was about time to get blogging. You asked about favourite authors. Mine is Salman Rushdie. I love his mixing of fantasy into reality - but its always done so skillfully that you never really think of the fantasy as fantasy! And his made up words, and tying real history into his fiction - the man is a genius.

When he is about to bring out a new book I ALWAYS pre-order. At the moment I am four chapters into Shalimar the Clown and, as yet, I have not been disappointed. But, the thing with your favourite authors is that you wait ages for a new book to come out and then you consume it in days and its gone and you have to wait another three years or so for another new one! So, this time I am on ration. One chapter every other day - and on the day in between I reread the chapter from the day before. It's fabulous - it means you don't miss a thing and the book lasts that little bit longer.

Just down from Mr Rushdie are Rohinton Mistry and Khushwant Singh and perhaps lying alongside them is also Amitav Ghosh (do I see a pattern emerging?!) All of their books are read within hours of being put on the shelves in our local bookshop (although, saying that, I have to order Khushwant's books from India and then wait to see whether the postal system will deliver them or not - which can be distressing in the extreme!)

After Ellie's blog I'm trying to think of women authors too. Jeanette Winterson is on my list too, although increasingly I am disappointed with her stuff these days. I'm also very eager to read Andrea Levy's next book as I thought Small Island was a masterpiece.

Oh, and of course, I'd love to read Arundhati Roy's next work of fiction, but then she did say that she only had one story in her head and that was The God of Small Things so I suspect I may be waiting quite some time.

October Bookgroup...

Just got home after a nice evening at the pub discussing 'The War of the Worlds'. Almost everyone who read the book enjoyed it, and got various things out of it, including seeing parallels with current affairs (hurricanes, and London bombings). For me , it's been good to read the book after seeing the film - I suspect I wouldn't have enjoyed the film as much if I'd already read the book. Is it usually better to see the film before reading the book, or visa versa? On the whole, I usually prefer the book...and watching that Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban or whatever film, that didn't make me want to read any Harry Potters books at all!

Anyway, I'm waffling....the short list this month was chosen by Nicky and was entiled 'L is for List...'

1. To Kill a Mocking Bird Harper Lee
2. Fruit of the Lemon Andrea Levy
3. The Phantom of the Opera Gaston Leroux
4. Rumours of a Hurricane Tim Lott
5. Sons and Lovers D H Lawrence

And the winner this month is....Rumours of a Hurricane by Tim Lott.

Happy reading guys.

See you next month on Thursday (controversial!) 17th November, and Nancy is choosing the next short list.

Who are your favourite writers and why?

In an effort to get people to write some bloody posts (!), I'd love y0u to say who your favourite writers are and why.Which writer's books would you pick up as soon as it was published, or whose books do you eagerly await...?

Mine are, in no particular order:

1. Douglas Coupland - Generation X was a term invented by him. I read this book when I was a teenager and have grown up and older with his novels. I would buy his new book without even reading the back cover.
2. Haruki Murakami - disappearing cats and women with amazing ears, wells, and giant frogs. All in Japan. What more could you want in a book? I did however read a review of his last book which said it was a bit dodgy.
3. John Wyndham - intelligent, chilling, classic sci-fi, inspiration for films and TV series
4. David Mitchell - 3 wonderful books so far, challenging and engrossing

OK I'm a little concerned because these are all men...I also would happily read anything by Anita Shreve, Jodi Piccoult, Carol Shields, Jeanette Winterson, Banana Yoshimoto, Maggie O'Farrell, Ursula K Le Guin, Sarah Waters, Sparkle Hayter, Margaret Atwood, Tracey Chevalier and yes, you read correct, Marian Keyes. These are all women.

Anyway, tell us your fave writers.