Cinderloo
(Dawley Riots)

Books

OK, I'm a bookworm. Or, assuming, one wants something a little less pejorative - a bibliophile. Whatever. I love reading. Perhaps my upbringing was rather unusual in that I learned to read The Daily Telegraph and The Merchant of Venice before anything else. Seriously: when I was three. It was down to my grandmother: she was losing her sight and needed someone to read to her and, as her oldest grandchild, I was the obvious target for her endeavours. And, before the days of nursery schools my mother was glad to get me from under her feet.

Consequently, by the time I arrived at Primary School Janet and John books held little interest. However, my handwriting remained (and remains) hopelessly illegible...

Despite this inauspicious start, I kept on reading and here are links to websites of some of my favourite authors:-

	J. G. Ballard Somewhere or other, somehow or other, he coined the definitive phrase of the C20th: 'a man, alone his car, driving down a multilane freeway'. Science fiction for people who don't like science fiction.
	Jorge Luis Borges A friend introduced me to his work as the 'greatest-ever' short story writer. Well, it depends upon your viewpoint, but I tend to agree with him. This is also one of the best author-focused websites.
	John Crowley Little, Big is my favourite book. Ever. I bought an orrery after reading it! His recent (2005) novella The Girlhood of Shakespeare's Heroines has the best ending of any story I've ever read.

Arthur Machen
Inveterate old Welsh hippy. What more can I say? Well, of the two 'fan clubs' to which I belong, his is one.

Keith Roberts
One of the finest British SF writers. Ever. Memorably described by Victoria Glendinning as a cross between Thomas Hardy and Russell Hoban. Allegedly (by people who knew him) a miserable, cantankerous bastard, 'a middle-class Prospero'- who, incidentally, wrote like an angel. Even his obituary mentions 'temperamental' and 'paranoid'. Make up your own mind. Pavane, his most famous (if not his best) book was republished recently. I used to buy up every secondhand copy I found and give it to people who liked reading but didn't like SF.

Iain Sinclair
Contemporary fiction and polemic was never any better. Newcomers are advised to start with White Chappell, Scarlet Tracings - a kind of pastiche on the Jack the Ripper theories. A word of warning: don't try to collect his books - we're talking of editions of 26 copies here.