As a kid, I enjoyed animal stories – White Fang, Call Of The Wild, Watership Down.
Became a bit obsessed with Orwell in my teens and devoured everything he wrote, with my favourite being Keep The Aspidistra Flying.
Did a degree in English and was force-fed classics for several years, which pretty much put me off reading them subsequently.
I enjoyed the Scottish Literature component of my course more than the rest of it. I remember being particularly taken with George Douglas Brown’s The House With The Green Shutters and the Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg.
Northwood’s Kyril Bonfiglioli quote definitely struck a chord.