Books: The Modern Library

On Iain Sinclair's

Downriver (1991)

'For him, capitalism is a form of terrorism, with money moving across London like napalm.'

On Anthony Burgess's

Earthly Powers (1980)

'In 1984 he produced a book which listed his 99 favourite novels. People suspected this was the hundredth.'

On Anne Rice's

Interview with the Vampire (1976)

'With Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Bram Stoker's Dracula, this is one of the great tales of the supernatural, a mythic exposition of the meaning of good and evil.'

On Georgette Heyer's The Grand Sophy (1950)

'In Heyer's milieu lack of looks is always a disadvantage, but Wit and Style make up for it.'

On Will Self's My Idea of Fun (1993)

'In this pungent Swiftian attack, using as many nasty images as possible, Self cuts to the gut and watches his subject bleed, usually to death.'