Francis King

The death of Adam Johnson in May of this year at the age of 28 was a tragic loss to lit- erature. His earlier poetry struck me as unremarkable; but in the brief period of a year......

Patrick Skene Catling

Helping to start a recent week on BBC Radio, Vikram Seth said of his enthralling romantic saga, A Suitable Boy (Phoenix House, £20): 'I didn't want it to be stained glass; I......

Christopher Hawtree

My greatest enjoyment was the Disney Aladdin — I've watched the American video three times now. It is the studio's finest and in the voice of the genie, con- tains Robin......

Dot Wordsworth

I don't know about me, but my ten-year-old daughter Veronica's favourite book at the moment is Nuticulus Satyrique: olim fabula Noddy and the Goblins — modo in linguam Latinam......

Gabriele Annan

I liked Karl Miller's Rebecca's Vest (Hamish Hamilton, £14.99) about his early life in Scotland, Cambridge, and London. The title is a tease, and so is the book. You have to......

John Jolliffe

I greatly admired John Simpson's In the Forests of the Night (Hutchinson, £16.99), a hair-raising first-hand exposé of the ultra- murderous Shining Path movement, and t he......