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Walter de la Mare is wonderful – and so underrated. It's funny how certain writers fade out of the public consciousness, often for no reason. The poet Swinburne is another example – superb, yet...

Do similie's count? P. G. Wodehouse describes his uncle as looking "like a pterodactyl with a secret sorrow," and describes Jeeves removing his purple socks from the drawer "as if he were a...

I have never found anyone funnier than Evelyn Waugh and P. G. Wodehouse. Waugh is darker and nastier. With Wodehouse, you have to read him out loud. Ideally, you must read him in a refined, upper...

Yes, I agree. That's a great book.

I believe in literature and the arts. I know some people argue that literature doesn't (and shouldn't) seek to improve civilization, morality, etc, but I believe it does. In general, I find literary...

Harold Bloom's 'The Western Canon'. I love everything by Bloom, especially his great book on Shakespeare, but 'The Western Canon' is my favorite.

I'm sticking to Harold Bloom's reading list. I don't entirely agree with it, but it's the best guide I know.

It's happening here in the UK as well. A University recently cut Chaucer from their reading list. Apparently, they are 'de-colonising' their curriculum (a sinister policy like that could have been...

Yes, I have just started writing seriously. Why do I do it? It's an interesting question, and one every writer should ask himself. Deep down, many writers (and painters, musicians, singers, actors,...

If you mean which writer creates the most plausible/realistic dialogue (where you feel "ah, yes, this is just how people talk") I couldn't say. But for brilliant, witty, urbane dialogue, where people...

I'm English-British, not American, so this is an outsider perspective. I guess the first question is what does it mean to write 'the great American novel'? What is it you have to capture? Presumably,...

RIP. I don't know who is going to replace him. Academia is now dominated by left-leaning bullies. Bloom firmly believed we should judge a work on its merits, ignoring gender, ethnicity, politics,...

Agreed. And it's getting worse. They now seem to award them based on ethnicity, politics, gender, etc. If you are a straight, white, conservative male, god help you. The T. S. Eliot prize, for...

My list for the coming year (I am going to try and mix fiction with popular science).

1) Listen to the Sherlock Holmes books on audio (someone bought me the boxset of Stephen Fry reading them all...

I love this list

D H Lawrence: Women In Love Many critics consider this the greatest novel written in English in the 20th-century, second only to Ulysses.

George Orwell: 1984 You have to read it. No excuses....

Agreed. Jude the Obscure is also incredibly bleak. Oddly, though, I don't find Hardy depressing. Maybe it's because, though he did have a bleak view of life, he was himself relatively cheerful. Other...

Agreed. Jude the Obscure is also incredibly bleak. Oddly, though, I don't find Hardy depressing. Maybe it's because, though he did have a bleak view of existence he was himself relatively cheerful....

Chaucer: 'The Prologue to The Canterbury Tales'. I re-read this every Spring, and it never fails to lift me. Chaucer writes with a glorious, joyful, life-affirming warmth. I have even taken him with...

the wor.

Edward St Aubyn's Patrick Melrose novels might qualify. The central character is a heroin addict who is cheated out of his inheritance and then wrecks his marriage. Personally, I think they are...

You mention essayists, yet don't include George Orwell! Some consider him the greatest essayist in the English language. And his literary criticism is superb. His essay on Dickens, for example, is a...

He is an interesting and entertaining writer. But he also holds fairly conservative views, and many people love him for it. Bloom believes in, and defends, 'the canon'. Unfortunately, just because...

Right Ho Jeeves is a near perfect piece of comic writing.

I didn't even know it had been released until I saw it in my local bookstore this morning. I looked up a few reviews and they were generally positive. But it is a monster of a book – longer than the...