WHATBOOK..? FAY WELDON

. . . are you reading now?

A TIME To Be Born, a novel by New York writer Dawn Powell, first published in 1942 (available on Amazon for 1p plus postage): funny, smart, cool and socially impassioned. Dawn Powell is one of the great U.S. novelists of the 20th century.

. . . first gave you the reading bug?

J. R. R. TOLKIEN’S The Hobbit, read in 1939 when I was eight. I do not forget those threatening forests, those snowy peaks, the sense of good and evil.

It made me realise what could be done with words. It turned me into a readaholic writeaholic.

I’ve been searching all my life and

still have not found an alternative universe so powerful. If I ever do, I will let you know. . . . would you take to a desert island?

THE Last Empire, a book of essays by the late Gore Vidal. So knowledgeable, lively and eloquently written, it could be re-read over and over. It was Vidal, in this book, who drew my attention to

Dawn Powell. He was a fine literary critic and an astute political analyst. . . . left you cold?

I SUPPOSE the writings of Pelagius who, in around 400 AD — no doubt with good intentions — heretically denied the doctrine of original sin.