Dry-ish, spare, clear-eyed — rare in a world of literary bloat, sentiment and overstatement

Few literary activities could give quite so much pleasure as reading the work of this brilliant but overlooked novelist

Cleverness is a virtue in itself but is never sterile or without purpose

Three great novels capture a moment of change for society

Tried and tested novels overlooked in our neophilic rush to the new and wanting

A cerebral critic pleaser, a dramatic crowd pleaser, and a perennial favourite

Being memorable and sticky guarantees a novel a long and healthy life

His disturbing debut, The Wasp Factory, is being reissued this year

Every literary season has a book that comes from nowhere and seems to gallop ahead of the competition

We’re a long way from touchstones One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera