Changes

BJM: [[Shakespeare]] because he is brilliant at revealing how people behave, Dickens because of his capacity to create character and atmosphere and Hemingway because of his powerful, stripped-down narrative. The [[Collected Poems Of Ted Hughes by Ted Hughes|poetry of Ted Hughes]] is incredible; it shows how words can create. In the field of science fiction and fantasy, the most influential have been H P Lovecraft (for spooky weirdness), [[The Horror Stories of Robert E Howard by Robert E Howard|Robert E Howard]] (for action), [[:Category:J R R Tolkien|J R R Tolkien]] (for breadth of imagination), Mervyn Peake (for gothic eccentricity), [[The History Of The Runestaff by Michael Moorcock|Michael Moorcock]] (for refusing to conforming conform to genres) and [[:Category:Ursula K Le Guin|Ursula Le Guin]] (for depth of imaginative detail).

BJM: I always have a load of books on the go at any one time – it drives me mad. The current crop include ''The Mayor of Casterbridge'' by Thomas Hardy (I studied it for my O level English literature and have just finished re-reading it – the story is beautifully described, but don't read it if you want a happy ending), [[''Hyperspace '' by Michio Kaku]] (the universe really is this weird – or is it universes?) and ''The Histories'' by Herodotus (there are more entertaining reads but it is very interesting to discover what was 'history' 2,500 years ago).