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.