Comments on: Simply the Best – Britains Best Writers since 1945?

By: gav

gav — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 20:56:06 +0000

Sorry for taking a couple of days to comment.

@Rob, I’ve never heard of Glen Duncan but now I think I’ve got to bring read him. Looks right up my street! I, Lucifer!

@Jem – The Fifth Child sounds goood!

@ Litlove (if i can call you that I’m glad you took the time to comment as it was, as you say, such an mix of masters and those that I’m indifferent to.

@ Chris, I think I’ve seen Animal Farm the cartoon too many times to be able to now read it. It’s the same with Hitchhikers Guide. I’ve listened to the radio play and watch the BBC series a lot and can’t get the same feeling from the books. I’m better at watching films of books i’ve read but once I’ve seen it I loose interest in reading it. Or is that just me?

So has anyone actually read Mr Banks???

By: Chris (The Book Swede)

Chris (The Book Swede) — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 19:32:47 +0000

Iain Banks has a novel called … erm … something about wasps which is supposed to be really good, and I’m currently reading his SF novel, so we’ll see! There are so many on there I don’t know! Animal Farm by George Orwell is good.

~Chris

By: Litlove

Litlove — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 12:37:01 +0000

I’d encourage anyone to read Excellent Women by Barbara Pym and The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles, but really I’m here to say how reassuring to see that you felt the same way I did about the list! It was such an odd selection, and seemed to feature so many writers I didn’t particularly care for!

By: jem

jem — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 12:34:18 +0000

Good to see your responses to this list – like you I had a fair few ‘who’ moments!

I read ‘The Fifth Child’ (Doris Lessing) a while ago, it was quite creepy and dark – you might like it.

I like the more straightforward Ballard stuff (‘Empire of the Sun’) but you might prefer his weirder ones.

John Fowles wrote ‘The Collector’ which I read a long while ago but remember really enjoying.

Ishiguro is a weird one – I hated ‘Remains of the Day’ but loved ‘Never Let Me Go’ – they were worlds apart.

By: Robert

Robert — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 21:57:04 +0000

What I’ve read of Ballard did not impress me (Millennium People), but I’m told his earlier works were amazing, in particular The Drowned World.

For Iain Banks, someone keeps telling me The Crow Road is a masterpiece, but haven’t read that either.

For Michael Moorcock, Behold the Man is vaguely interesting, and the Elric Omnibus is cheerful enough, but once again, I have a nagging suspicion he’s better at short stories than full-length novels.

I’m a bit surprised that Aldous Huxley isn’t on the list (or did he predate 1946?)

And I adore Pullman’s Northern Lights trilogy.

Most of the writers on the list aren’t ones I’d read for enjoyment. Glen Duncan, Toby Litt, Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, … all missing. Och well. Knew I wasn’t the literary type…