Who are your favourite writers?

Aphra Behn, LM Montgomery, Adrienne Rich, Gloria Steinem and Herman Hesse. i tend to feel awkward when asked why i like people or things so i won't say why.

Christopher Hitchens, I love for his snobbish sniping, the burning intelligent vitriol that pours from his pen. I generally don't care for people who think a lot of themselves, who are so assured in their opinions, but he's got the stylish elan to pull it off. I recommend: his book on Thomas Jefferson, Paine's Rights of Man, and my favourite, God is Not Great. I'm going to miss him when he goes.

Brendan Behan. Ex-IRA man who drank himself to death after writing some of the most fetchingly charismatic works in the English language. Behan's got that Hunter Thompson/Jack Kerouac factor (both of whom are favourites of mine) where after you read some of his work, you want to run out of the room and have some great experiences in your life.

Terry Pratchett. The funniest tragedy writer the world's ever seen. Pratchett believes in people, and shaped much of my worldview. Things get extremely sh*tty, but there'll be good people to try and fix the confused mess that those less able to hide their fear leave. The Sam Vimes books in particular.

Other comic writers: My avatar, Marky Mark Twain. PG Wodehouse. Douglas Adams. Oscar Wilde could be pretty funny. The fag on the crag's plays were his poetry.

James Clarence Mangan. A drunken wastrel smackhead Irish poet capable of bringing home the brutal reality of life while simultaneously composing word symphonies on the simple redemption of love/obsession. Extremely underrated prose writer who got me reading old German stuff.

Graham Greene. The quintessential British writer after D*ckens, as far as I'm concerned. All human life is there.

Bukowski, Burroughs, Baudelaire, Blake.

Lorca, Rimbaud, Shakespeare.

Bill Bryson's science book opened my eyes to the awe of the natural world in a witty way.

I like Stephen King as well.

David McCullogh's one of my favourite histtory writers. I think everyone should read his biography of John Adams.

- Terry Pratchett.
- Douglas Adams.
- Jasper Fforde.
- Douglas Coupland.
- Alex Garland.
- Audrey Niffenegger.
- Scarlett Thomas.
- Erlend Loe.

Quote: Animal, Mar 2011

Harlen Ellison and his shorts, such as I have no mouth and I must Scream a story of the last survivors of humanity, kept alive and tortured forever by the insane and highly angry AM; a supercomputer constructed by the three main factions in the last world war to run the war more efficiently for them. Plus countless more (Sadly my book collection is currently all boxed up under my bed so I am struggling to remember much more off the top of my head.)

I really like Ellison's writing. He's a bit of a pointless d*ck in real life, but in terms of imagination and tough prose, he's up there with Stephen King and Richard Matheson.