Philip Larkin’s collections of verse might not seem like comfort reading, but he gives me comfort in the same way the songs of the Smiths or Nick Cave give me comfort. Dr Seuss’s books are the perfect bedtime read as they are like dreams, and sometimes nightmares. Lying on my father’s hairy chest as he read Dr Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham to me. There are hundreds of editions of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll as illustrators are forever drawn to it. I know it is a work of genius, but it looks very long. I also haven’t read Ulysses by James Joyce (who I am often compared to). I haven’t read any of my own books, but I do hope to one day. While I was reading Genesis I found myself flicking all the way to Revelation to see if there was a happy ending. I bought one with the intention of finally reading it cover to cover.

I have just bought it for my nephews in the hope that they will become fans too. Sue Townsend’s Adrian Mole series is laugh-out-loud funny, as is Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which has a sparkling new edition with illustrations by the genius Chris Riddell. There is a thread about Ryder desperately trying to please his parents, which resonates with me strongly. It is a dream narrative about a concert pianist named Ryder trying to travel to his own concert. I read it when it came out 25 years ago and again recently.

I found Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Unconsoled incredibly moving. I credit Orwell with waking me up from my privileged middle-class childhood and making me become a socialist. The book is still a powerful punch of a read. Orwell may have gone to Eton, but he chose to write about the horror of 1930s working-class life in The Road to Wigan Pier. Of course, I read Animal Farm as a child, and Nineteen Eighty-Four as a teenager, but I loved his nonfiction too. George Orwell’s work had a big influence on me politically. His books might not be read as much by young people nowadays, but he was a visionary who influenced Cloud Atlas author David Mitchell as well as the legendary Margaret Atwood.

I devoured his science fiction stories as a child, especially The Day of the Triffids, Chocky, The Midwich Cuckoos and The Chrysalids. Dr Seuss’s books are the perfect bedtime read as they are like dreams, and sometimes nightmares It was the first book I read on my own as a child and is arguably the greatest children’s book of all time. The book that had the greatest influence on my writingĬharlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. I always think the Harry Potter universe has at least a hundred great ideas in it, if not more. It is rare that an author can create such a complete world. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by JK Rowling.

The fortune men book review