Swing, swing, swing that scythe

[martyn44]

There are many writers whose work I admire and enjoy. There are very few whose work screams at me - 'this is the benchmark to which you must aspire, you dullard.' Of my 'contemporaries' there were four, but Rob Holdstock has gone and now Iain Banks has joined Sir Terry on the not long for this world list. I like his 'mainstream' work more than I do his 'genre' work because he brings the fabulist's vision to what has become a stultifyingly self-obsessed self-indulgence over the last sixty odd years. The Crow Road is one of the few contemporary novels written during my lifetime that I can read again and again, discovering more each time. I haven't read a Booker winner that comes anywhere near its lyrical humanity and imagination. Espedair Street is pretty damned hot in my opinion too. As I say, my opinion. Yours may differ. That's life.

So, that is three out of four of my gods either erased or about to be. Manda, you take good care of yourself.