Author, who came to Brigg in 2008 to talk about his debut novel A Perfect Night.
My all time favourite five reads are ...
- Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household. The best chase thriller ever. Household plunges you straight into the action just like a Bourne film - yet it was published in 1939. The hero is on the run after nearly assassinating an un-named European dictator. Thrillers often don't wear well. This one just seems to get better over time.
- Agent Zig Zag by Ben Macintyre. The astonishing true story of Eddie Chapman, 1930s safe-blower and all round bad lad who finds himself in jail in Jersey when the Germans arrive. Having convinced his new captors that he's willing to work for them he's parachuted back into England and - well just get it and read it as soon as possible.
- Jack's Return Home by Ted Lewis. Better known as the book that inspired the film Get Carter, every bit as dark and spare and edgy as the movie.
- The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald. A supremely accessible classic that summed up an entire American decade.
- Paris Trout by Pete Dexter. Dark tense and compelling, a great portrait of the underside of small town life in the American South.
My favourite word is ...
My favourite book from my childhood was ...
- Four Wheel Drift by Bruce Carter (Richard Hough, father of the novelist and screenwriter Debborah Moggach).
A boys own story of can-do in motor racing, now a fabulous snapshot of 1950s life before Health and Safety.
The last thing I read before answering these questions was ...
- When Will There Be Good News by Kate Atkinson.
Everything had to go on hold until I finished it. Wonderful!
My favourite place to read would be ...
- A café, preferably the Blue Mountain on Northcross Road in East Dulwich, or in the bay window of the front room in the house I grew up in in Sheffield.
If I could only read one last thing in my life it would be ...
- The script of Casablanca.