Ten Greatest Authors

[iansales]

I can't even remotely pretend the ten authors in this list are the "greatest" in any commonly-accepted sense. They're not all favourites, but they're certainly the authors whose writing I admire the most. Still, it's a list. Everyone likes lists.

In no particular order...

1. Lawrence Durrell - I love the way he uses the English language. At a sentence

Comments

[martyn44]

Of course any such 'list' is bound to be disingenuous, especially now when nobody can claim to have read anywhere near all the 'great' writers of their generation, let alone those that went before. Nevertheless, that's an interesting list populated by fine writers. I'll have to search out some Sebald, as I don't think I've read him (one of the other benefits of such lists)

I'd put Robert Holdstock and Iain Banks (though not Iain 'M' Banks [discuss using one side of paper only, writing in purple crayon]) into my list, and Manda Scott (on the understanding she stops writing about crystal skulls and returns to Boudica/No Good Deed standard) replacing Park, Jones and Robinson, but that is merely my preference. As I say, an interesting list.

[iansales]

Holdstock's Where Time Winds Blow is one of my favourite sf novels, but I never really cottoned on to his fantasy. Banks has yet to write a great book, although one or two have come close. Never heard of Manda Scott - I'll have to look her up.